Imperfection
by VampireQueenAkasha
Summary: AU: Sequel to "Imperfect". After she was freed from Sector Seven's control, it seems that something else has moved forward to threaten her. This time, it's more personal than before. IronhideXOC.
1. 1984

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**1984**

_Main Entry: 2. Something imperfect; a defect or flaw. /im·per·fec·tion (mpr-fkshn)._

_1984_

The Hoover Dam Research Facility was heavily guarded and something was already taking place. There were guards, full armor, powerful shock rifles, and expressions empty and cold. They guarded the lab, listening to the sounds of whirring and machines beeping.

Inside the lab, many screens were flashing and lighting up and doctors were going about their daily routine. There was a large glass pen that housed a young, ten year old girl. She was lying sleeping on a bed inside and seemed particularly peaceful. Her short white hair had fallen over her eyes that had horrible scars resembling tears. She was wearing nothing but a white suit and on her wrist was the tattoo of a Roman numeral 7.

Two doctors walked into the room, smiling. The younger one, Dr. Ashfield, beamed. He was enthusiastic about the accomplishment. His friend, an older and more mature scientist stood beside him, also smiling. His tag read Dr. Michaels.

"Has the subject stirred in the last four hours?" Michaels asked, turning to a doctor.

"No, sir." was another doctor's response.

Ashfield knotted his brows and walked over to the glass, knocking it slightly with a single knuckle. The little girl inside stirred a bit and blinked, stretching. He smiled, pleased at the sight.

"How's my little subject?" he asked.

Finally, her violet, pools of eyes opened and she stared at the doctor with a sleepily, irritated look. She stretched and stood up, walking to her bathroom to get herself cleaned up. It was the one place where she had a moment of privacy. Outside of her bathroom, she could hear the doctors

"Excellent, how have her tests come along?" Michaels asked.

"Very well, sir," the doctor replied, "We will be doing some more tests very soon."

The child spent most of her morning reading books and watching television. The doctors took extra care to make sure she learned everything necessary. She could process it all rapidly than what a normal person was capable of. On the television screen, an image of a whale emerged from the ocean water in a breech maneuver. She watched the magnificent sight with amazement, her eyes wide. On the screen, a man appeared.

"This amazing creature is free!"

The girl pondered the word. _Freedom._

The doctors watching her decided to put her to the test. "Number seven?" Ashfield questioned, "Tell me what you know about the whale."

She obediently nodded and started speaking. "The whale lies in the kingdom _Animalia_. It is a part of the class _Mammilia_ and the subclass _Eutheria_. This subgroup is of mammals consisting of placental animals plus all extinct mammals that are more closely related to living placental like the human than to living marsupials like the kangaroo." she said, "Whales can range in size from the blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed or have been recorded in history. It can range from 115 feet and 134 long tons; 150 short tons, to various pygmy species, such as the pygmy sperm whale at 11 feet."

The doctor smiled, impressed. "Excellent!" he said, "And what else?"

She inhaled deeply and spoke her words calmly. "The term whale itself can sometimes refer to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder _Odontoceti_ - also known as the toothed whales. This suborder itself also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga whale." she continued, "The other Cetacean suborder _Mysticeti_ - known as the baleen whales - are filter feeders that eat small organisms caught by straining seawater through a comblike structure found in the mouth called baleen. This suborder includes the blue whale, the humpback whale, the bowhead whale and the minke whale. All Cetacea have forelimbs modified as fins, a tail with horizontal flukes, and nasal openings - blowholes - on top of the head."

"Magnificent!" another doctor said, "Her intelligence exceeds that of a normal 10 year old girl!"

The child looked confused by this. "So I'm not normal?" she questioned.

The two doctors realized their error and shook their heads. They tried to salvage her confusion in another way.

"No. You're better than normal, my dear!" Ashfield explained, "Imagine all of that intelligence, your strength and your agility at such a young age! The world itself would envy you for such skills! You are a treasure!"

She still seemed horribly confused by this. Moments afterward, the girl was taken by Michaels toward the recreational area. She looked up at him curiously.

"Doctor, where does that door go?" she asked, gesturing toward a massive steel door.

Michaels smiled at her. "It's a forbidden place, my dear," he explained, "You must never go there."

"Why?"

"You shouldn't ask so many questions," Michaels said, "Sometimes people don't like so many of them. Sometimes, when we ask so many questions, we may ask the wrong ones. I want you to remember that well, child."

She nodded her head, though the curiosity still remained.

And so did the distant, lost feeling. An emptiness and loneliness that they always pushed aside as if it were nothing. She did hope that maybe one day it would come to an end and she could find her freedom. Maybe some day.


	2. Tomorrow

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Tomorrow**

_Present Day_

The sounds of Sam's grunts of effort filled the back yard early that morning.

Terra calmly blocked each and every punch and kick he attempted to swing at her. She just smiled at him; he was covered head to toe in sweat and she had never broken a single drop of it. He was getting exhausted and she was still full of energy.

"Sam, we've only been working for a few hours," she told him, "If you want to get stronger, you have to work harder."

Sam took a deep gulp of air and plopped down into the grass. "Well, technically by my observation, you're a cheater."

Her brows went up. "Pardon?"

"You're a jacked up government super weapon born and trained to do this crazy shit on a daily basis," Sam explained, catching his breath, "Me? I'm a teenage boy with awkward conversation issues and bad acne."

Terra chuckled softly, shaking her head with her hands on her hips. "This is more work than I had previously imagined it would be," she remarked, "I think you complain too much. But if you really do need a break, we can do that."

She turned and started to gather up a few bags of sand and Sam watched her in silence for a moment before smirking mischievously. He reached at his side and picked up Mojo's tennis ball lying in the grass. Silently, he aimed it at Terra's head and threw it, attempting to throw her off with the sneak attack. Immediately, she spun swiftly and caught it in one hand. Sam blinked in disbelief and she laughed softly.

"Nice try." she said.

Sam stood up and watched as she hoisted two heavy sandbags into her arms, walking them toward the shed to put them away. "How do you do that anyway?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"Act so tough," Sam said, watching as she nudged the shed door open with her foot. He grimaced when she dropped one of the bags to the floor with a loud thud. "I mean, you can hear things I can't hear and you can push a pickup truck on your own."

Terra chuckled and arched her brows. "That incident with Ironhide was hardly my fault, Sam," she said, "He was sleeping and your mother wanted me to clean the driveway. He didn't want to move, so I merely gave him a little nudge in the street."

Sam sighed and shook his head. "Man, I wish I had your charisma."

Terra grunted and gave Sam a small push out of the shed, dusting her hands off on her pants afterwards. "Sam, you shouldn't wish that whatsoever," she said, "You just need to work harder at what you do to get better, that's all. I got where I am because my destiny was decided for me by humankind, but we won't get into that, now will we?"

Sam grimace somewhat. "Yeah, I guess not. Sorry."

"It's okay."

Just then, Judy stepped out onto the porch with Mojo and Frankie tailing along behind her. "Hey, Terra!" she called, "I'm starting on supper! Mikaela and Miles are going to be over here real soon! Did you want the chicken or the fish?"

Ron gave an impatient growl as he staggered out from the side of the house. "Jesus, Judy, make sure the neighbors hear you..."

Terra laughed gently and inclined her head hopefully in Judy's direction. The concept of food made her stomach groan. "Can it be both?" she asked her.

Judy smiled and nodded, thrilled with the concept. "I like it!"

Ron shook his head with dismay and gave Terra a funny look. "You really shouldn't encourage her," he said, "When Sam was five, she turned the kitchen into a battlefield during Christmas dinner the last time someone suggested that she make more food."

"Nonsense, Mister Witwicky," Terra reprimanded gently, "She enjoys cooking more than any woman would. After all, would it be wrong to deny her?" She grinned now. "Especially with her gifts, it would be criminal."

"Yeah, good point," Ron agreed. He looked at Sam now. "So, did you get your clothes packed yet?"

Sam rolled his eyes and he followed his father into the house with Terra following behind him. "Dad, calm down," he muttered sarcastically in a dead-panned voice, "Don't get so hysterical about my leaving. I'll still write and call when I can."

"Hey, it means a game room for me," Ron said, grinning.

Judy walked across the kitchen and into the living room to the sound of a knocking at the front door. She opened it and in stepped Mikaela and Miles. She looked somewhat annoyed by the other teenager attempting to make sense of a book in his hands. The title caught the interest of Terra because she tilted her head in an attempt to read it better.

"The Divine Comedy?" she said, in an amused voice.

Miles sighed with annoyance. "It's not funny at all," he told her, "It says DIVINE COMEDY. I thought it was supposed to be funny." Then, he paused when he realized who he was talking to and lifted his head, grinning at the woman. "Oh hey Terra; you're looking exceptionally fine as always."

Terra gave him a half smile before she plucked the book from his hands. "And what may I ask is the purpose for reading this book?" she asked.

"Some doof at the store suggested it to me," Miles muttered, folding his arms across his chest, "When I asked him for something funny, he handed me this pile of crap." He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I think that asshole was trying to be funny with me."

Terra chuckled quietly. "Ah, I see." she murmured, "But the Divine Comedy is hardly...crap as you put it. It is a fantastic piece of literature. Perhaps I can be of some assistance to help you better understand the concept of it."

Miles flashed a grin. The concept seemed to please him. "Sweet!" he said.

Mikaela rolled her eyes and disappeared into the kitchen. She gave Sam a kiss on the cheek and looked up at Judy who gathered some frozen chicken breast from a bag. "Do you need some help in the kitchen, Miss Witwicky?" she asked.

Judy smiled with pride and held up a spoon. "I'm a one-woman kitchen utensil, Mikaela," she boasted, "But thank you anyway."

Terra paged through the book and pursed her lips thoughtfully in silence before she smiled up at Miles. "The Divine Comedy, or in Italian known as _Divina Commedia_ is an epic poem that was written by Dante Alighieri between the years of 1308 and to the time of his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature to date. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts known as the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

On the surface, the poem simply describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and finally Heaven; but at a much deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called 'the Summa in verse'."

Judy had frozen in the middle of straightening dinner to gawk at Terra in shock as she continued on.

"The work was originally simply titled _Comedìa_ and was later christened _Divina _by Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni, also an Italian author and poet of his time. The first printed edition to add the word divine to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce - Italian theorist of painting, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari, a 16th century Italian printer active in Venice. The Divine Comedy is composed of a total of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas - Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso - each consisting of 33 cantos.

An initial canto serves as an introduction to the poem and is generally considered to be part of the first cantica, bringing the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, as well as the opening two cantos of each cantica serving as a prologue to each of the three cantiche. The number three is prominent in the work, represented here by the length of each cantica. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic, with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme.

The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's long journey through the three realms of the afterlife, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro - otherwise known as Virgil - guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice Portinari, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through the gates of Heaven on the way. Beatrice was known as a Florentine woman whom he had met in his childhood life and he so admired her from afar in the mode of the then - fashionable courtly love tradition which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work _La Vita Nuova_.

The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1 for a total of 10: 9 circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; 9 rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the Garden of Eden crowning its summit; and the 9 celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. Within the 9, 7 correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdividing itself into three subcategories, while two others of more particularity are added on for a completion of nine. For example, the seven deadly sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant and the excommunicated by the church. The core seven sins within purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love such as Lust, Gluttony, Greed, deficient love otherwise referred to as Sloth, and malicious love otherwise referred to as Wrath, Envy, Pride. In Hell and Purgatory, Dante shares in the sin and the penitence respectively. The last word in each of the three parts of the Divine Comedy is stelle, 'stars'."

The entire time, Miles was staring at her with his jaw hanging open. He stopped her in the middle of her speech by raising one hand.

"Uh, can you say that a little slower again while I get my notebook?" he asked, gesticulating to put emphasis on his words.

Terra nodded. "Of course."

Miles sprang outside and Mikaela called after him. "Don't go digging through my glove compartment again!" she shouted. She looked up at Terra as the woman set the book down on the counter. "You're a walking computer, Terra."

Sam laughed in agreement. "Where were you when I needed my history report done?"

Judy smiled and bent over to reach a bowl beneath the sink. "Terra, I didn't know you could speak multiple languages either." she said, "That might be useful when Ron and I head out for our vacation in Paris."

Terra nodded her head. "_Sì. Parlo molte lingue molto bene_ (Yes. I speak many languages very well)." she responded in Italian.

Sam laughed. "Including German?"

"_Ja. Ich spreche viele Sprachen sehr gut_." Terra replied, using the same words in German.

Mikaela licked her lips. "What about Polish?"

"_Tak. Mówi__ę wielu językach bardzo dobrze_." Terra answered, once again translating the same sentence in Polish.

Sam and Mikaela laughed. "Wow, that's incredible!" Mikaela said, "How'd you learn how to speak so many languages?"

"I was trained that way by my superiors," Terra told her, "It was required that I learned all the world's languages for my missions." A smile lit her lips. "It's fascinating really; how one species can speak so many different dialects."

Sam snickered. "What about Klingon?" he asked.

Terra arched a single brow and tsked at the suggestion. "Really Sam?" she said, skeptically. Despite the fact that she was wearing her goggles, she rolled her eyes. "_yIDoghQo' _(This is silly) ..."

Sam laughed at that. "Nice!"

Judy frowned thoughtfully and struggled to undo a pile of bowls sticking together, grunting with irritation. "How do you say, 'I need to return these crappy bowls to the store and smack my mother-in-law for ever getting me them' in French?" she asked.

"_J'ai besoin de retourner ces bols merdiques __à la boutique et claquer ma mère-frère à tout jamais me procurer eux_," Terra answered.

O

Later that evening, Terra walked out to the garage to visit Bumblebee. He flashed his lights silently when he saw her coming.

"Hello, Bumblebee," she said.

"_Hello_." Bumblebee greeted through the radio.

"Would you be so kind as to take me to the Lennox home?" she asked him.

Bumblebee's door opened without hesitation. She climbed into the passenger seat and his engine started up. They drove down the darkened streets in silence for the longest time. Terra was watching the street passing with a calm smile.

"Bumblebee, do you think that there's a chance for me to live a normal life?" she asked, "To live as they do?"

Once again, he spoke through the radio. "_We choose our own destiny. No one else can do that for us_."

"Hm. I suppose that's true." she replied, "But what of one who has committed such atrocities as I have? Would that still be acceptable?"

Bumblebee was quiet now. He didn't know the answer.

Terra closed her eyes and decided to forget about it in a brief moment of sleep. It sounded like a good idea since sleep had avoided her for a while. It would take a while before they arrived at the Lennox house, so perhaps sleep would be the better option for her. After all, she had gone without it for a long time.

She had a dream, a vision of various murdered victims that all came back to her. Though it did little to draw a response, Bumblebee could sense her alarm as he pulled up quietly into the Lennox's driveway early the next morning, near Ironhide who was recharging late. Terra simply smiled calmly down at the dashboard of the yellow scout once he inquired about her increased heart rate and slightly damp brow from her dream.

"It's nothing to concern yourself with, Bumblebee," she assured him, "I'm fine."

She stepped outside and smiled at Ironhide. She gave his grill a gentle stroke to which he moved up slightly into it.

"Good morning," he rumbled gently, "How was your trip?"

"Quiet," she replied, "Though I'm not complaining. I could handle some silence for a change."

She looked over toward Lennox and his fellow soldiers playing basketball that morning. She tilted her head and watched the movements as well as the dribbling ball as it was tossed through a hoop by Epps. He cheered and slapped high fives with Jorge Figueroa, otherwise known as "Fig". After Lennox raised his hand in a "time out" gesture, everyone took a moment to gather their energy by drinking water and eating snacks.

"Hm, he's gotten faster," Terra mused, "How long until he has to return to base?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Ironhide replied, "Perhaps a few days; no date's been set just yet. We've received word that there will be more Autobots arriving within that time. I'm assuming that the troops will no doubt need to be present for their arrival."

Terra nodded her head. She stood silently for a moment before Ironhide pushed himself forward on his wheels, nudging her gently. Terra was never too comfortable in a public setting, but Ironhide pushed on having her communicate with others to make herself feel a little more confident in that area.

"Go and talk with them," he advised.

She chuckled softly and walked over to Lennox. He smiled when he saw her.

"Hey, Ironhide told me you ere coming over," he said, "How was your trip?"

Terra took a spot beside him. "It was fine." she replied, "I've noticed you've improved in your movements. That's good."

Lennox laughed gently. "Yeah. Well I think it's that or Fig's gotten sneakier." He grabbed a bottle of water and began to drink it down before pausing and looking beyond Terra to Ironhide parked in the driveway and he smiled, giving her an elbow. "Hey, lover boy's been talking about you all morning. He's been asking me time and time again when you were going to get here. He acts tough about it, but trust me, I had to hear it."

Terra arched a brow. "Although he does behave like one, that is hardly appropriate, Lennox."

Lennox chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, holding up two hands. "Ahh, I'm backing off." he joked.

Sarah Lennox walked out of the house carrying Annabelle in her arms. She looked at Ironhide and said something out of earshot before looking up at Terra and beckoning with one finger. Terra arched her brows and stood up. She walked toward Lennox's wife and stared at her quizzically.

"Is there something wrong, Miss Lennox?" she asked.

Sarah laughed gently. "Terra, how many times have I told you to call me Sarah?" she asked.

Terra followed her inside. "More than once, Miss Lennox." she answered simply. "I have counted and it is precisely 14 times."

Sarah rolled her eyes good - naturedly. "Well, I called you in because I need your help with something." she said, "Christmas is coming up soon."

Terra's brow knotted and she looked somewhat confused by the woman's proclamation. "I don't mean to sound as if I am attempting to correct what you may already know, but Christmas is many months away yet."

Sarah laughed. "I'm a mother and a wife. We do shopping several months in advance." she told her. "And I sort of need another woman's opinion on what to get him."

Terra shook her head and grimaced somewhat at the suggestion. "I have little experience in the celebration of holidays, Sarah," she told her, "I would be a poor candidate in that regard."

"Nonsense," Sarah replied, guiding Terra into the kitchen; she placed Annabelle into her high chair and the infant started eating from a bowl of cheerios. "Now, I was going to get him a new tool set. I thought that you might have an idea of what could be better for him. I'd ask the guys but they can't keep secrets for anything."

"I see."

Sarah held out two magazines with pages marked. She opened them up for Terra to get a good look at. She pondered slightly and looked up at the woman who stared back with a hopeful look on her face. Terra decided to humor her, despite her lack of experience with matters regarding these things.

"Ah. Well if I might give my opinion, I'd say this would be sufficient enough for his tastes," she said, gesturing to the picture of a black tool set. "After all, it contains far more in the set itself than the previous and with Ironhide as his guardian, black would easily blend in nicely with his body. He doesn't approve of colors that stand out too much on him."

Sarah laughed gently. "Okay. Thank you, Terra."

Terra watched as the woman gathered the magazines and put them aside before she started working on lunch.

"I appreciate you hosting me for the time being, Sarah," Terra told her, with a small smile, "I will not overstay my welcome for much longer until I can find myself a suitable job."

Sarah laughed gently. "It's no trouble at all!" she said, "We're glad to have you."

O

Terra calmly stood in the hardware department while Sarah was talking to an employee. The subject of patience was a paradox to Terra; she could spend days stalking her prey, but sometimes, one minute was one too long for her. Instead of waiting, she walked toward the electronic department and noticed that there were several televisions playing the company commercial on the screens. There were many kinds of every shape, color and size.

Sarah was just finishing talking with the employee when she looked over and saw Terra standing stock still in front of the screens, just ... watching then like a silent statue. Furrowing her brow, she walked up to the other woman and stared at her. Terra wasn't moving and with the goggles over her eyes, it was difficult to judge what gaze she held. Her mouth was closed tight and her jaw was set in an expression of intense focus.

"Terra?" Sarah said, quietly, "Are you okay?"

A brief, momentary flashback tore through Terra's mind and she didn't feel Sarah's hand touch her shoulder and give it a gentle shake. Instead, in her mind, she saw herself strapped to a chair in front of many smaller television screens, playing different types of images; her eyes were pried wide open and...

Suddenly, Terra snapped out of her trance and looked at Sarah. "Huh? What did you say?" she asked.

Sarah squinted at her, concerned. "Are you okay?" she asked again.

Terra nodded with a small sigh after a while of silence. "Yes. I'm fine. I'm fine. I must apologize," she said, "I just recalled something from my time within the facility. I...uh...was miles away while you were speaking."

Sarah smiled gently and patted her shoulder. "Terra, you don't have to worry about that anymore," she told the woman, "You don't have to deal with it again now that the facility's been closed down. You're safe and out of harms way."

"I suppose."

"Anyway," Sarah continued, "I've found what I want at this store. Maybe we can grab something to eat while we're out here. What do you feel hungry for?"

Terra smiled faintly at the concept of food. She tilted her head in deep contemplation before responding. "A cheese pizza with some garlic sticks, a grilled chicken salad and some chicken lo-mein, if you wouldn't mind my saying."

Sarah blinked, surprised at her requests. "Uh, just let me get to an ATM machine then..."

After gathering some cash from the machine, the two women sat down in the food court where Sarah had to push two tables together for Terra's food. She watched the woman eat with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Sarah had only ordered a chicken sandwich.

"That hyper metabolism can be a pain, can't it?" she said.

Terra nodded. "Yes. However useful for keeping yourself in shape."

"You're lucky to stay so thin."

"Yes, I suppose I am."

Sarah took a long drink from her soda before she tilted her head. "Terra, I was just wondering... It's been on my mind for a while and I've never really had the chance to ask you this until now, so don't take it the qrong way. I'm curious but why are you so protective of my family and the Witwicky's?" She paused when Terra looked up at her. "I'm sure you can have your own life. We probably inconvenience you."

"No." Terra said, shaking her head. The corners of her mouth lightly curved upwards. "I am actually very happy to be of service to you and Sam's family. It is a nice change to my history of taking the lives of others."

Sarah smiled faintly at the thought. "Can I ask another question?"

Terra looked somewhat hesitant, but she nodded.

"Where was your first mission anyway? Bill's always bragging about his to his buddies. I've never heard your side."

Terra's hands froze in the reach for her pizza. She was quiet for the longest time before answering.

"I don't like to talk about my first mission." she said, and her voice carried an edge to it.

Sarah's smile disappeared. She sensed something dark to her side of her first mission that she didn't want to reveal. Maybe not yet or maybe she never would reveal it. "It might make you feel better if you did."

"I said, no." Terra's voice had gotten significantly firmer, but not at all rude.

Sarah felt a chill from Terra's words, but nonetheless, nodded her head weakly. Terra watched her silently start to eat her sandwich and eventually decided to meet her halfway. She weakly smiled and straightened in her chair.

"I did have the chance to visit Russia." she told the woman.

Sarah smiled now, intrigued. "Really? What part?"

"Through my entire life, I was dropped into Russia at least four times to the major cities and three into smaller towns," Terra explained, "I was sent Moscow to terminate a Black Market salesman who was attempting to ship illegal blueprints. I was sent to Russia again to Saint Petersburg to take the life of another who shipped child slaves throughout the world. Once in Izhevsk to slay a weapon's dealer and once in Perm to kill a drug lord sending dangerous stimulants to the smaller, neighboring towns. Those were a few of what I was responsible for."

Sarah blinked, surprised. "I bet you had to learn the language pretty well."

"Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some of 100 languages. 142.6 million people speak Russian, followed by Tatar with 5.3 million and Ukrainian with 1.8 million speakers. Russian is the only official state language, but there are many that I was required to learn." Terra explained.

"Besides the doom and gloom behind it, is Russia a nice country?" Sarah asked.

Terra smiled and nodded her head. "Yes, it is. I actually love the cold weather there. One of my favorite pieces of architecture in Moscow is the Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat-or as it is popularly known-Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow."

Sarah looked impressed. "Wow!"

"Despite the killings that had to be made, I did have the pleasure of touring these fantastic countries and seeing quite an array of architecture, paintings and other works of art," Terra continued, "It's rather fascinating what different cultures have to offer."

Sarah was quiet and looked somewhat surprised. "You like art?"

"Oh yes, I love art."

Sarah laughed gently. "I never thought you did. You never struck me as an art aficionado."

"I had spent such a long time in solitary most of my life," Terra told her, "I appreciate art purely because art is one of the few things that each and every culture has in common. Despite so much that separates each and every one of us." Her smile disappeared slightly. "When I was young, one of my doctors-I didn't know his name. So I called him Bird because of his nose-actually encouraged me to paint once. He believed that it would help them understand what I was feeling. It was an act that made me almost feel human." Sarah watched Terra's smile completely disappear. "Without my goggles at the time, being partially blind didn't make my paintings realistic or lovely in the way that the cathedral was, but he seemed to genuinely enjoy them."

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "What happened?"

"Doctor Michaels became my new doctor and he felt that I was becoming too involved in petty affairs," Terra continued, "He punished me for having any interest in music, art or architecture. What I was allowed to read and learn about was merely processed information and nothing more. Desire was deemed by him and the others as irrellevant. They pushed aside anything that made me feel human and bred me to become a killer."

"That's stupid," Sarah said, shaking her head. Then, she smiled, getting an idea. "Why don't we get you some stuff to paint again?"

Terra shook her head. "That was the past, Sarah," she argued gently, "I was ten years old."

Sarah stood up. "Terra, there's nothing wrong with it. I bet you're good."

"Sarah..."

"Oh come on!" Sarah told her with a gentle laugh, "I think it's time you lived like a human for a change."

Terra smiled weakly. "Very well..."

Terra and Sarah eventually returned to the Lennox house with Sarah collecting canisters of paint in her arms. Terra took them from her after seeing that she was struggling with the heavy containers. Lennox was at the kitchen when he watched them come inside. His eyes landed on the paint cans and he looked surprised. Terra placed the cans onto the counter top and turned to Annabelle with a smile, gently nudging a bowl toward her.

"What's all this for?" he asked.

Sarah smiled and gestured to Terra who studied Annabelle as she ate bits of fruit from her bowl. The baby cooed and grasped Terra's finger.

"We have an artist in our midst," she told her husband, "Terra's going to paint for us."

Lennox arched his brows. "Huh. Okay then. What are you going to paint for us Terra?"

Terra seemed particularly shy about the attention. "I don't know ... " she said, "It's been a long time."

"Where's Ironhide?" Sarah asked, looking at her husband when Terra stepped out of the house and onto the patio.

"He went with Optimus," Lennox told her, "There's going to be some new Autobots arriving in a few days. I can call him back if you need him."

Sarah smiled. "Not yet. I'll let you know."

Once they were outside, Terra was offered a paint brush and the paint. Lennox watched with amusement as Sarah gestured to the patio at her feet.

"It's your whole canvas, Terra," Sarah told her, "I'll tell you what I tell my students; let yourself feel the picture. It doesn't have to be anything specific or perfect. It's just you. Paint whatever you see and feel."

Terra arched her brows. "Your students are third graders, Sarah ... I'm a professional, trained government assassin."

Sarah laughed and nodded, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, do whatever it takes then," she told the woman, "The point that I'm trying to make is; paint whatever you want. I was tired of this bland white patio anyway."

Terra looked over at Lennox. "Is it okay with you?"

He laughed and waved his hand. "Hey, you and I both know that what the wife says, goes!"

Terra managed a small smile. "Okay."

O

It took several hours.

Terra was outside until the sun started to set. Ironhide had returned to the Lennox house and was ushered to the back to see what it was that Lennox was making such a fuss about. He stopped at the corner of the house and his optics grew wide in mute disbelief.

Terra was kneeling in a squat over the most gorgeous painting he had ever seen; she had painted what appeared to be a flock of black birds flying over the Earth that was surrounded by bleeding, jagged thorns. Even the stars and planets around Earth had been painted and they appeared to have faces in the middle of shedding tears. Terra sensed his presence and stood up, smiling gently. He shook his head and approached staring down at the bizarre, yet intriguing work of human artwork before him.

Shortly, Lennox and Sarah walked out to get a good look.

"Oh my, look at that!" Sarah exclaimed, "That's beautiful, Terra!"

Terra nodded her head. "You find this acceptable?"

"You didn't tell me you could do this," Ironhide added, smiling down at her, "I'm not really an art fellow myself, but you put a lot of work into this. It's good."

"Thank you."

Terra seemed somewhat bothered, so Sarah attempted to break the ice and she stepped up, tilting her head.

"This is interesting, Terra," she said, "Do you want to know what I see here?"

Terra nodded faintly.

"I see someone put on a pedestal," Sarah said, licking her lips thoughtfully. She looked at Terra and spoke her words carefully, but truthfully. "This person was made to see the universe in shadows and she felt devoted to the world, but her devotion was choking her. Like the vines here? They could signify some kind of restraint or hold that the world has over her. The fact that they're bleeding could be the fact that she is feeling some pain from it still. The black birds might be some kind of shadow that hangs over her too; the events of a day gone bad. The weeping planets could be forgotten innocence ... "

Terra blinked away a memory of a dead, lifeless face staring up at her. She looked at Sarah with a weak smile.

"This was fun, but I should sleep." she told her, "Thank you."

She turned and walked away with Ironhide transforming and following her. Lennox and Sarah watched her go and he stared at his wife with a small smile.

"You did good," he said, "She needed some kind of outlet."

Sarah nodded her head. "She's been looking a bit distracted lately. All we did was talk. Talking helps."

Ironhide pulled up into the driveway and opened the door. Terra climbed inside and let herself lay on his seats. She felt content with the warm leather against her skin. There was a zapping sound and she felt hands on her back. She looked up and noticed that he had changed his holoform to an exact duplicate of himself. Not one to question the offering, she let him pull her into a sitting position so that he could hold her in his arms.

"Something's troubling you, Terra," he said.

"It's nothing." she told him, "I'm fine."

"I watched you finish your painting; you looked so happy. The happiest that I'd ever seen you," Ironhide said, looking down at her, "What changed?"

Terra watched as his hand moved up to take her goggles from her face. She didn't argue and felt truly comfortable with him and only him removing them, yet she still couldn't help but feel a dull ache in her stomach that came with this vulnerable feeling. She closed her eyes when she felt him press kissed against her closed lids. The metal felt cool against her skin.

"Tell me, Terra," Ironhide requested, "You can always tell me."

Terra moved her head away from his face and looked away. He pulled her head back with a gentle finger and made her look into his eyes.

"Terra..." he began, in a soft, yet warning tone.

She smiled weakly at him. "I just feel tired I suppose," she told him, "Away from you for too long. I've just been feeling a bit..."

"Lonely?" Ironhide finished for her.

She looked ashamed now and he chuckled gently. "Don't be ashamed of yourself," he said, "It's perfectly alright to feel that way. I'll let you stay here and then we can move to NEST headquarters. You can meet a few of my friends-well acquaintances-there."

She chuckled quietly. "Okay."

"Get some rest." Ironhide's holoform vanished and she felt his tires relax on his shocks.

Terra finally closed her eyes and curled up into his seats.


	3. Brothers

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Brothers**

Terra awoke the following morning to Ironhide's concerned voice.

"Terra, there's been an accident."

Terra looked stunned and was immediately awake now. "What?" she gasped, "What is it?"

Ironhide was slowly pulling out of the driveway with Lennox rushing up to him. Immediately, she noticed that he was wielding one of his assault rifles tightly in his hands. He was also dressed in his military attire and looked worried. She looked at him expecting an explanation and he waited until he was buckled in before he looked at her.

"Terra, they've found your brothers." he told her.

Terra made a surprised sound in her throat, but then, she immediately returned to the calm, passive warrior that she was so famous for being. "Where are they now?" she asked the man, "What is their current position?"

"North West of here, about 15 miles," Lennox told her, "They've taken refuge inside an abandoned military bunker. For now, my men have the place surrounded and they aren't going anywhere. We also don't know if they themselves are armed."

Terra nodded her head in agreement, though she looked mildly troubled. "That seems to be the most logical solution," she said, "Have there been any civilian casualties?"

"None so far. We're trying to keep it as hush - hush as we can. We think that they may have been looking for you."

"And what makes you believe that?" Terra asked.

"Epps had mentioned that one of them had asked for you."

Terra nodded again. She tried to contain her shock. "Okay then. Take me to them."

"Will they listen to you?" Lennox asked.

"We'll have to see."

They drove down the empty roads for a long time before pulling up to an abandoned bunker where Lennox's men had already been stationed around it with their assault rifles pointed toward the exits. Terra and Lennox climbed out of Ironhide and she moved toward a soldier holding a bullhorn. Lennox followed her.

"Let me see that," she ordered.

He offered the bullhorn to her and Terra brought the mouthpiece to her lips. She briefly contemplated what to say before looking at Lennox. He gestured for her to start talking and she nodded before looking up toward the bunker.

"My brothers!" she called in a loud, powerful voice, "It's me, Number Seven; your sister. You have nothing to fear anymore. You are completely free from this and from the slavery of the government. You may notice the guns trailed on you. These men wield weapons for their own safety, not for the sole purpose of termination. However, if you choose the path of destruction, then you leave us no choice. Step outside and surrender and no harm will come to you."

There was a moment of silence before the bunker doors eventually opened and everyone immediately reacted, tensing should they be forced to open fire. Terra watched in mute shock as a blood-soaked form stepped out of the darkness, dressed in military body armor just as she remembered him.

It was Number Four; he was distinguishable because of the scar across his left eye. The one thing that Terra had in common with her brothers was the violet pupil-less eyes. They had all been blessed with goggles to aid them in their sight, but he had his removed.

"Number Four!" Terra called, dropping the bullhorn and rushing up to him.

He dropped to his knees and Terra bent down, catching him in her arms before he could fall. He looked up at her and she noticed that his mouth was soaked in blood. His eyes were sunken and his features haggard. He appeared to look right through her.

"Seven...Sick..." he panted, "We're sick..."

Terra frowned. "What?"

"Without the Energy..." Number Four gasped, spewing more blood from his mouth, "We're..."

His body abruptly seized and several choking spasms shook him before he went still. Terra stared down at the lifeless body of her fallen brother before she brought his forehead close to her face and kissed him.

"Be at peace, brother..." she said, softly.

Lennox and his men rushed into the bunker with their weapons at the ready. As they cast their flashlights in the darkness, Lennox spotted something that made his stomach turn.

"Oh shit!" he gasped.

Terra stood like a stone statue, watching as the medical troops brought out her brother's bodies in black bags. Lennox approached and put a hand on her shoulder. Terra didn't react at the gesture and stared down at the pale, dead face of Number Five; he had thick facial hair and gray locks. She remembered that Number Five was always the strictest of her brothers. He was always for business and considered things like resting to be weaknesses.

"Terra, I'm sorry about what happened to them," Lennox said, gently, "You know, if you have to cry, you can."

A memory passed through Terra's mind.

Dr. Michaels glared down at the 12 year old Terra as she performed physically strenuous push ups while carrying bags of sand on her back.

"There will be no weakness here, Terra!" he bellowed, "You are not weak! Don't cry! Crying is for the weak! We will never shed a single tear, am I clear?"

"Yes sir..."

Terra shook her head, snapping back into reality. The sound of Dr. Michaels' voice faded in the back of her mind and she didn't look at Lennox when she finally answered. "No. I don't cry. It would do nothing to bring them back."

"We don't know what it was that killed them," Lennox continued, "But we'll figure it out soon. I promise."

Terra said nothing, but nodded her head.

"Ironhide's headed back to NEST now," Lennox told her, "Maybe you should go with him. I'll clean up here and catch a ride with Epps and the others."

Once again, she left without saying another word.

O

Upon arriving at NEST at Diego Garcia, Terra contacted Mikaela and apologized leaving her friends without any form of heads up on her part. Fortunately Mikaela had been fine with it and mentioned having to keep track of her father who had recently been out of prison. Then, Terra decided to investigate her surroundings for a little bit and came across Sideswipe - a silver Corvette - and a new Autobot whom she had never met before.

"Hey," he greeted, transforming into his bipedal form, "Nice to meet you. You're the hybrid Ironhide's been talking about, huh?"

Terra didn't seem offended by his choice of words. "I am."

Sideswipe chuckled and held up one hand to her, a gesture at attempted civility. He didn't want to give a bad first impression. "I guess you're probably used to hearing that by now. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting, but a bit unnatural for someone like you to exist at all."

"I understand," Terra replied.

Sideswipe waved his hands in the air, feeling that he may have offended her. "Oh, don't think I'm prejudice. It's not that at all. I've just never seen anything quite like you before. I'm not sure how to really handle it. Know what I mean?"

Terra chuckled quietly and nodded her head. "Don't explain yourself. I understand."

"Ah, that's good," Sideswipe said, smiling with a glimmer of relief, "I don't want to make my first association with humans to turn out kinda foul." He paused briefly before gesturing. "Hey, care to show me around this place? I could use a good eye, you know."

Terra nodded. "Of course."

Below the base, Lennox stood with Doctor Gordon inside the medical lab as the man performed an autopsy of Number Four. He had opened up his ribcage and began exploring the source of the man's unusual death. His gloved hands were slick with gore and the floor was nearly covered in it. He had several bloody tools lying on a small tray at his side. Lennox looked somewhat disgusted by the display, but maintained a cool composure.

"Terra can't know what we're doing down here," Lennox told a soldier standing by the door, "It might upset her if she sees. Make sure she stays topside."

The soldier acknowledged with a nod and left the room.

Doctor Gordon chuckled dryly beneath his mask. He didn't seem as sympathetic as he should have. "Upset that woman? That would be the day; Hell, I'd be surprised if she could even cry."

Lennox looked up at him sternly. He didn't seem too thrilled about the man's attitude regarding Terra's feelings. "She has feelings like the rest of us, you know."

Doctor Gordon shrugged calmly before he resumed his attention on the body on the table. His brow knotted. "Huh. Whatever you say, soldier. So far, I don't see anything wrong with this guy. Physically, he looks to be in good health, that's the strange part."

Lennox tilted his head. "But that doesn't explain all the blood he had all over his body." he said, "Do you think he might have killed the others?"

"No." Doctor Gordon replied, cleaning a scalpel on the already-soaked cloth, "The blood is his, but there are no signs of any damages to his body for any reason. Because of the abnormal results from their altered DNA, it's difficult to make any definite judgement on what was exactly wrong with him that caused his death." He sighed and looked up at Lennox. "I need more time to study him. Keep Terra out of my lab for right now."

"Okay. Got it."

Lennox returned to the surface and found Terra starting on work at painting another portrait. This time, it seemed that it caught the attention of Epps who was passing through when he noticed Terra's picture. He tilted his head and approached with a smile.

"Wow. Damn, girl. That's nice!" he said.

This time, she had painted an almost disturbing image of a skeleton with wings spread out and it appeared to be crucified. Nails were driven into its body in many places. The head of the skeleton wasn't human and instead, it was a pig.

"Thank you, Robert," she said.

Epps furrowed his brow now. "Don't get me wrong; it's a bit creepy, but good. Kinda emo in a sense."

"Pardon?"

Epps smiled at Terra's confused look and shrugged his shoulders, attempting to clarify his assessment. "Emo. You know, kinda like something out of Korn or Marilyn Manson or something that weird little Goth kinds might come up with." He was straightforward and honest, which made him respectable.

Terra still seemed rather confused. "I'm not certain, but emo is not a state of mind as it is generally a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics." she said. "It it to my knowledge that Emo is also an Irish oil company and filling station chain, a speedway in Emo, Ontario, a nightclub in Austin, Texas, an album by Screeching Weasel and Sari Kaasinen and a song by Blink-182 from Dude Ranch."

Epps laughed at that. "Damn girl, is there anything you don't know?"

Instead of responding to that, she decided to change the subject. "Is there something you were planning on doing?" Terra questioned.

Epps smiled and nodded. "Yeah; I was gonna phone my family," he said, "Monique likes it when I call in from time to time."

He opened up his wallet and showed her a photo of his family together; there were three girls and a younger boy with a beautiful African American woman sitting together. Epps was in the picture too and he was holding his wife lovingly.

"They're beautiful," Terra said, smiling, "You must be proud."

Epps chuckled and nodded, putting the wallet back into his pocket. "Hell yeah. But don't sweat it. You'll pop out some little ones soon, I bet."

"No. That would be impossible." Terra resumed painting a red blotch over the pig head's mouth.

"Really?" Epps asked, "Why's that?"

"I'm biological unable to conceive."

Epps' smile disappeared somewhat and his brow knotted sympathetically. "Shit, that sucks. But hey, there's always adoption. I bet you'd make a kick ass mother."

Terra smiled at the thought. "Hm."

"Anyway, I gotta go." Epps took off.

Terra resumed work on her painting when the Autobots stepped out of the warehouse to greet the new arrivals; Chromia, Elita-One, Arcee, Skids and Mudflap. They shared a collection of stories and embraces before Sideswipe pulled Ironhide aside to talk about his weapons.

"Hey, they're firing off pretty good," he told his superior, "But I need your expertise on this one." Ironhide didn't seem to be paying attention and Sideswipe frowned. "What's the matter?" He looked over his shoulder and noticed the Autobot Wepaon's Specialist looking toward Chromia among the females who were in the middle of conversation with a group of human soldiers. Sideswipe groaned and looked up at him. "Primus, you didn't tell Terra about Chromia, did you?"

Ironhide snorted. "It's none of your business Sideswipe," he snapped, "I didn't know that she was still alive! I thought that Shockwave had-"

"Terra has a right to know," Sideswipe argued gently, "I don't give a damn what she is, you can't play with her feelings like that."

Ironhide scowled at him. "Keep out of it, Sideswipe. Just keep out of our affairs."

Behind them, Skids and Mudflap worked their way into the warehouse and had already started in on conversation with Terra.

"Whoo! Look at this freaky thing!" Skids hooted, "Never seen a human with a bot complex!"

Terra arched her brows up at the two. "And you are?" she inquired.

"Skids!"

"Mudflap!"

Terra made an amused sound. "Somehow I am less than surprised..."

Lennox walked up and gestured to the two robots. "Guys, I need to talk to Terra alone, please."

"Hey, you're the boss." Skids said.

The two brothers departed while sharing crude jokes with one another while Terra and Lennox walked to the lounge. They sat across from one another and Lennox looked dead serious in her direction. Terra stared back calmly.

"Something is troubling you," she said.

"Terra, they've been checking up on your brother, Number Four," he explained, "So far, we've been unable to determine what the cause of his death is. I think if we knew a little bit more about you, we may be able to understand what happened."

Terra nodded. "Alright."

"We might have to do some...tests." Lennox said, with a faint smile, "Would you be cool with that?"

Terra's smile slowly disappeared and then, she stood up from her spot across from him. There was an icy change to her voice that she seemed to make an attempt to conceal, but it failed. "I'm sorry. I can't help you. I have to go now."

Lennox looked stunned as she disappeared from the lounge. He groaned and followed her. "Terra, wait a second! Listen, it's to help us understand! Please, just hear me out!"

Ironhide caught this and frowned, sensing a change in Terra's pulse. He watched as she disappeared out into the runway and he frowned down at Lennox. "What's the matter?" he asked, with an irritated growl, "What's going on?"

Lennox sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. "I just asked her if we could do some tests and she walked out on me."

Ironhide looked stunned. "What?" he snapped, "You what?"

"I just asked her!" Lennox insisted, "We need to understand what killed her brothers!"

"She has spent her entire life as a test subject in a cage!" Ironhide growled, throwing his hands in the air, "That was a stupid thing to ask her!"

Lennox didn't appreciate getting chewed out merely for being concerned. He scowled at him with irritation. "Ironhide, I don't need a lecture from you, okay?" he barked, "I'm worried about her. Don't you know that every single one of her brothers died off for reasons we can't figure out?"

Ironhide scowled, but he slowly started to look concerned.

O

Terra was quietly laying in her bed, watching a small, aged bronze music box playing back a soft, sad tune. There was a tiny bird in the center that danced in a gentle circle. Terra lightly stroked it and closed her eyes, attempting to relax and find sleep.

_"Terra?"_

She kept her eyes closed and furrowed her brow, yet tightened further into herself; a gesture that suggested her need for comfort.

_"Don't you know what's happening to you? You're slowly losing your mind, just like your brothers had. The cracks are slowly starting to show and the madness is working its way inside. When it takes over, I will be waiting for you. I always will..."_

Terra opened her eyes, ignoring the voice as it faded away. She didn't know whether or not it was real, but she heard it regardless. Then, someone knocked on her door. It was Lennox.

"Terra? Can I come in?" he asked.

She closed the music box and fitted it back into her coat. "Yes."

Lennox opened the door and stepped inside; he looked very embarrassed. "Terra, listen; I wanted to apologize for making you feel uncomfortable out there," he said, "I didn't mean to, but I just wanted to have a grip on this issue. I didn't mean to freak you out or anything."

Terra nodded her head. "It's okay, Lennox."

"Look, if something was wrong, you could always come to us, you know that, right?" he asked, giving her a stern, yet worried look.

Terra once again nodded. "Yes, I know."

Lennox seemed satisfied, though slightly troubled still. Terra had to give him credit; he had good instinct. Instead, he veered the conversation elsewhere and noticed her hand in her pocket. He had heard the music from the music box.

"So, was that a gift or something?" he asked, "The music box, I mean."

Terra brought it from her pocket and nodded. "Yes."

Lennox studied the symbols etched in the bronze. "Huh. That looks Russian."

"It is. It was a gift from a friend. It reads, '_Mili peshkom s drugom tol'ko sto shagov_'," Terra explained, "Which translates into 'A mile walk with a friend has only one hundred steps.'."

Lennox smiled, though he sensed a sadness in Terra's voice. Her goggles always hid her eyes, so it was difficult to see what kind of emotion was hiding behind them, but he could definitely hear a strange despair that she tried to keep hidden.

"Terra," Lennox began, speaking carefully, "Listen, whenever you feel comfortable talking about it, we're here for you. I just want you to know that."

She didn't answer.

But really, could she?


	4. Shanghai

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Shanghai**

The streets of Shanghai erupted into chaos as civilians were urged away from the industrial area by the police and military. Terra assisted several of the civilians out of their homes. She shouted words in Chinese to those who couldn't speak any English.

"_Nǐ yào kuài diǎn_ (You have to hurry)!" Terra shouted to an aged woman, "_Shì nǐ de jiārén zài nǎlǐ_ (Where is your family)?"

The old woman looked up at her weakly, clutching her chest. Terra frowned, concerned by the woman's physical reactions; she sensed there was something wrong with her.

"_Zhè shì zěnme huí shì_ (What's wrong)?" she asked.

"_Xiōngbù...Wǒ de xiōngkǒu_ (Chest...my chest)," the woman breathed; her voice squeaked out of her like a creaking valve.

Terra helped the old woman toward an ambulance and she gestured to one of the doctors tending to many already. "_Nǐ! Zhèyàng de nǚrén xūyào jiùyī_ (You! This woman needs medical attention)!" she told the doctor.

The doctor helplessly shook his head. "_Zhè shì bù kěnéng de, yǐ shìyìng tā. Wǒmen yǐjīng yǒu zhème duō shēngbìng_ (It's impossible to fit her. We already have so many sick)." he argued, "_Wǒ hěn bàoqiàn. Nǐ bìxū qù qítā dìfāng_ (I'm sorry. You have to go elsewhere)."

Terra frowned. "_Tā kěnéng huì sǐ. Tā yǒu xiāochuǎn, wǒ kěyǐ tīngdào tā de fèi bù_ (She could die. She has asthma, I can hear it in her lungs)."

"_Wǒ hěn bàoqiàn. Wǒ bùnéng_ (I'm sorry. I can't)." the doctor insisted.

Behind her goggles, Terra's eyes narrowed. "_Jiù ná tā, wǒ dài nǐ_ (Take her, or I take you)," she threatened, in a calm, even voice, "_Zhè shì nǐ de xuǎnzé_ (It's your choice)."

The old woman blinked, stunned. She stared at Terra and then to the helpless, overworked doctor who eventually sighed and nodded his head. Obviously, he wasn't willing to challenge a government agent, even if she was American. He considered his own life above any kind of irritations regarding foreign affairs, especially when one of them could probably kill him.

"_Hǎo ba, hǎo ba_ (Okay, okay)," he stammered, "_Wǒ qù kàn kàn wǒ néng zuò xiē shénme_ (I'll see what I can do)."

Terra smiled slightly and gave a respectable bow of her head. "_Xièxiè_ (Thank you)."

She turned and rushed through the group of civilians to reach her team stationed just outside of the industrial area, out of sight from the public eye, joining Ironhide, Lennox and his men. Ironhide made a satisfied sound when things seemed to be in order.

"Now we wait," he said.

O

It was dark by the time the entire public had been evacuated from the area. They were waiting for a long time for signs of Decepticon activity.

"He's here," Lennox said, "We can be sure of that."

Ironhide transformed and scented the air briefly before growling out his words. "Yes, I smell him." he said.

The sounds of Skids and Mudflap calling down the empty Shanghai road was maddening to hear, especially for Terra who believed that stealth was much more of a key factor when it came to neutralizing an enemy. She pursed her lips with a murmur of annoyance.

"Ding-a-ling! Come out and get your ice cream!" Skids called in a taunting voice.

"Any bad robot out there better get ready for an ass-whoopin'!" Mudflap hollered.

Terra winced and glared up at Ironhide. "I refuse to believe that those addlepated twits were always soldiers," she muttered.

Ironhide actually chuckled at that. "Yes, the processor does boggle that one."

Lennox and his men followed a radiation signal toward a construction site where a massive excavator was quietly sitting. Suddenly, the excavator seemed to fold itself away before rising to its full height, revealing the furious, snarling form of Demolishor. He growled a Cybertronian curse and smashed his arms to the ground, the force sending several concrete pipes toward the NEST soldiers. Several crushed them beneath their great weight and others rolled away.

The sounds of shellfire filled the air as several NEST troops attempted to take Demolishor out. The massive Decepticon snarled with effort and shrugged off their attacks, smashing his way through the construction zone and onto the freeway.

Amid the chaos, Terra made her way through an alley and spotted the silver, jagged shape of an Audi R8 - Sideways - parked just a little ways in front of her. Despite his small size, he nearly took up most of the alleyway; his side mirrors would have been scratched if he had been an inch or two wider in shape. He revved his engine, daring her to try anything. Terra stood calmly before him, not even remotely terrified.

"Do your worst, Decepticon." she challenged.

Sideways' voice came out deadly and chilling. It also carried mockery to which came as no surprise. "You're just as they say you are," he hissed, "The freak."

"Who?" Terra asked.

"My comrades, of course," Sideways purred, "The Autobots captured me in Australia, but I escaped their clutches. It was quite an effort, but one that I managed."

Terra smiled with contempt and raised a finger to her headset. "Not for long."

"Wait!" Sideways hissed.

Terra's hand froze over her ear and she frowned at him.

"Why would you do that?" the Decepticon sneered, in a purring tone now, "Do you even know where you are right now?"

Terra shook her head. "I'm in Shanghai Chi-"

"No, no, I mean HERE, with the Autobots," Sideways said, rather sneakily, "Do you understand what it is they talk about when they think you cannot hear them?" He feigned dramatic silence and chuckled quietly. "I was a prisoner for a few weeks, Terra-Oh, that's right. I know your name too. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I don't think you understand that they laugh at you behind your back." He paused, catching her impassive reaction. "You don't see it, do you? They're lying to you."

Terra's brow knotted. She didn't believe the Decepticon, but something about his words nagged away at her conscience. "Why would they do something like that?" she asked.

"Well, they're afraid of you as they should be," Sideways purred, "They think you don't even know who you are. I've actually heard one of those flesh bags refer to you as a 'test tube monster'." He chuckled cruelly. "Oh my, now isn't that just funny!"

"You lie!" Terra hissed, glowering at him from behind her goggles.

"Yet you haven't alerted the others," Sideways shot back, "If I was such a liar to you, you'd have called them by I can see it; you're thinking about it." He sighed dramatically, ignoring the sounds of gunfire in the distance. "Let me put it simply for you. What are we? Cybertronians. We are made of metal, not flesh. Humans are made of flesh, but not metal. You were born on neither account." At Terra's surprised look, he laughed. "Soundwave is quite adept at infiltrating military records. We know everything about you, Terra."

"I know what I am," Terra said, her voice low.

Sideways chuckled quietly, as if her words held no consequence. "They're playing games with you, Terra. The humans are cowardly fleshy skin bags," he said, "Sooner or later, they will try to dispose of you. That's just how their precious mentality works. You know I'm right, Terra. You know it's only a matter of time." He paused once and made an amused sound at her silence. "Oh! Now I haven't upset you, have I?"

With that, he gunned his engine and his lights flashed on. Terra avoided the sound of Lennox's sudden alert to Sideways' presence as the Decepticon roared out of the alley and away from the battle.

His words echoed menacingly back at her.

O

Once back at Diego Garcia, the Autobots and NEST troop were evaluated for damages, losses and Lennox debriefed General Morshower on the current situation. He played back a message recording from Demolishor regarding a name; The Fallen. While this was going on, Skids and Mudflap rolled by several human soldiers in their ice cream truck mode, making goofy whistles and calls as they did. Terra watched them, rolling her eyes.

"Badass ice cream truck coming through...scuse me, scuse me..." Skids said.

They rolled passed two brand new Chevy vehicles, a Beat and a Trax. The two transformed into their robot forms and surveyed their new alternate modes like children at Christmas.

"Yeah, baby! It's upgrade time!" Skids hooted.

Mudflap laughed and walked up to the Beat. "Yes, sir! This is my booty call right here. Time to get my sexy on with the green..." he said. He did a little dance.

Skids immediately flipped his brother over. "Ah, no, green is MINE! I call green!" he snapped, "I got the green!"

"That hurt, man!" Mudflap protested.

"It's supposed to hurt, it's an ass-kickin'!" Skids shot back.

Epps rolled his eyes and looked back at Terra. "I'm gonna head up with Lennox," he told her, "You grab a bite to eat and chill."

She smiled weakly and nodded. "Alright, that's sounds..." She trailed off and started coughing, covering her mouth with an enclosed palm. It sounded rather rough and caused Epps to pause in his gait and looked back at her with a look of concern. "...sounds fine."

"You okay?" he asked.

Terra nodded again. "I'm fine. Just a cough. I should go to the bathroom quick."

She cleared her throat a bit and smiled again before departing. Epps shrugged his shoulders and walked up toward Lennox. He was immediately blindsided by Theodore Galloway who pushed his way angrily through groups of soldiers. Lennox smiled weakly when he saw him.

"Look who showed up..." he said, "Director Galloway, what an unexpected surprise..."

Galloway scowled at him. "Save it! Shanghai's a mess!"

Inside the bathroom, Terra splashed some cool water on her face and left the faucet running. She grimaced and coughed again, doubling forward with her head buried in the sink and the water rushing over her face. She coughed again and it sounded like a strangled, fluid sound. Staring down, she could see bright red blood swirling down the drain. Terra shuddered and lifted her weary face to the mirror, staring at it for the longest time before something flickered across her line of vision; a symbol.

She shut her eyes and gave her head a brief shake to calm her trembling body.

Flashes of death filled her head and she gritted her teeth, gripping her head with two hands. An animal snarl echoed out of her that she struggled to suppress. She doubled over and sat down on the toilet, grasping at the sides of her head in a futile struggle to fend off the horrible images.

Then, there came a knock on the door and Terra was temporarily relieved when the terrible images finally disappeared.

"Terra, are you okay in there?" the voice of a female soldier she didn't recognize; a new arrival, no doubt.

Terra's voice came out haggard and coarse. "I'm fine. Just please ... leave me alone."

"You sound a little bit rough," the soldier said, "Do you need a doctor?"

Terra gritted her teeth and opened the door, glaring at the woman standing there. "I need to be left alone, you irritating woman!" she spat, in a venomous voice that sounded different from her usual stoic tone, "How difficult is it to comprehend that?"

The female soldier looked stunned by the fury in her voice. Terra took a moment to analyze the woman before her with her goggles. Data displayed itself before her, following the woman's age, blood type, date of birth and social security number.

THREAT LEVEL: 4

NON COMBATANT

PVT. ALEXIS HARRIS

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Terra relaxed her shoulders and sighed, resuming her collected self once more. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," she said.

Private Alexis nodded her head, though she still looked troubled.

Terra made her way out of the bathroom toward the warehouse where Galloway was just finishing his rant regarding the situation of Shanghai. Then, he got in the middle of an argument regarding Terra with Lennox.

"And keep your freak test tube on a tight leash!" Galloway snapped.

Lennox could see Terra behind Galloway and awkwardly scratched the side of his cheek with one finger. "I don't think that's a good-" he began.

"Soldier, you're paid to shoot, not lecture me!" Galloway spat, "We're running a government facility, not a circus! Keep her on a tighter leash or I will!"

Terra's brows went up and she folded her arms across her chest. Her words came out slightly amused, but also carried a darker note that suggested her irritation. "You will?" she said, "I think I'd like to see that."

Galloway turned and seemed to falter slightly at the presence of the woman there.

"As a matter of fact, I'd like to see that right now," Terra challenged, approaching him; she stood a few inches taller than Galloway.

Lennox rolled his eyes. "Terra, he's not being serious."

Galloway scowled back at him. "The hell I'm not!" he snapped, "I won't be shaken by a-"

Terra was in his face now. "A what, Theodore?" she asked, in a soft whisper of menace, "Say it. Say it right now." She tilted her head with a cold smirk on her lips. "I don't think you can see that I know you're thinking it, whether you say it or not. But I want to hear it from your own lips, little man. Tell me what you really think of me or do you lack the courage of your convictions?"

There was a tense moment of silence between them and for the longest time, Galloway attempted courage, but he failed and shook his head angrily, brushing passed her with an angry curse beneath his breath and an excuse of "no time for this". Terra made a disgusted sound and Lennox chuckled dryly, shaking his head with mock pity at the display.

"I think I saw a trail of piss behind that asshole," he joked, "He should know better than to run his mouth around here."

Terra shook her head. "Words mean nothing." she said, calmly, "I just wanted to see if he had the courage to speak his mind." She turned halfway to him. "Those who harbor ill feelings to something, yet cannot voice it are cowards who deserve no respect."

Lennox didn't know for sure, but there was something more in her voice than she let on.


	5. Memoirs

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Memoirs**

Night descended on Diego Garcia. The Autobots went into recharge while Lennox, Fig, Epps and Private Joe Griffin decided to spend the evening playing poker in the warehouse. Terra didn't engage in the game of cards and instead, spent some time in a chair, reading the Divine Comedy. After Miles had reintroduced it to her, she felt interested in reading. The sounds the men made during the game were the only kind in the air that night.

"Deal 'em again!" Fig hollered, taking a drink of his beer can.

Lennox rolled his eyes at his display and looked back at Terra. "Hey, Terra, why don't you join us over here?" he suggested.

Terra peered up at him. "I'm quite content where I am, thank you."

Epps laughed and gestured with one hand. "Oh, come on, Terra!" she urged, "I bet you're probably kick ass at this game."

Terra arched her brows at the following urges from them to join in the game and she finally closed the book with a small sigh and a half-amused smile to follow. "Ahh, alright then," she muttered, "Make room for me."

After a moment of gathering another chair and dealing the cards, Terra had joined in on their game.

Fig chuckled. "_Sí, chica. Vamos a ver lo que tienes_ (Yeah, girl. Let's see what you got)."

Epps rolled his eyes. "English, man. Come on."

Terra couldn't resist a smirk in Fig's direction and spoke in Spanish as well. "_No es fácil integrarlos, pequeño_ (I don't fall easily, little boy)."

Joe sighed skeptically and grabbed a handful of peanuts. "Don't encourage him."

"Why not?" Terra asked glancing in his direction with a small smile on her face, "I see nothing wrong with being multilingual."

"It is when we don't have a damn clue what you're saying!" Epps muttered.

Fig and Terra shared a look and they just laughed.

"_Son ignorantes, no es cierto_ (They're ignorant, aren't they)?" he remarked.

Terra chuckled and studied her poker hand. "_En realidad, no tanto como un poco ingenuo_ (Not really so much as a little naive)."

A bit of time had passed after the jokes and eventually, everyone started talking about simple moments of their lives that had transpires; some good and some bad. A few snacks at the table went airborne a few times in the process.

Terra looked up as a grape sailed in her direction. She caught it with ease by sticking her hand out. "No airborne fruit at the table, please." she told them.

Lennox laughed and looked at his friends. "I remember the time Miles gave Terra a Monster," he said, "And she totally spazzed out."

Epps laughed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah. She wouldn't stop cleaning your house..."

_A completely energized Terra frantically vacuumed the rugs, grinning ecstatically at a stunned Sarah. "I'm going to clean the whole house!" she hollered, yelling as she started to attack the kitchen sink with cleaner._

_A stunned Sarah stood there in the living room, watching as Terra literally attacked the house.  
><em>

Joe laughed, amused. "On the plus side, your house never looked cleaner."

"A germ couldn't survive in it for days." Joe agreed.

Terra chuckled dryly. "I had no idea that my body could not fully handle the adverse effects of a powerful energy drink." she murmured.

Lennox giggled. "Yeah. Sarah called you the 'Cleaning Tornado'."

A few scattered laughs from them and eventually, the room grew silent for a brief moment. Finally, Fig looked over to Terra with an intrigued smile. "So, we hear you worked for the government once," he said, "Anything cool about it?"

"Not necessarily," Terra replied, studying her hand.

Joe grinned. "Did you get to kill people?" he asked.

"Yes."

Lennox shook his head. "It wasn't your fault," he said, "They made you do it."

Terra chuckled softly and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you don't have to tell me that, Lennox," she told him, "Most murders are often crimes of necessity rather than outright desire. But not the famous ones like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy or Jeffery Dahmer. No. They did it because they enjoyed it."

Lennox frowned. "You don't have anything in common with them."

"Of course I don't. Many murders that I had committed I was told were actions to protect the better part of humanity," Terra said. She took a deep sigh and sounded quieter now. "There are a few I had killed in my life that I do regret."

Epps frowned now, somewhat disturbed. "There's a lot of things all of us have done that we regret, Terra," he told her, "It's insane what we have to go through every day out there, but we do it for the better half of the world."

Terra laughed and there was a bit of bitterness to her laugh. "Insane?" she said, "You're speaking semantics now, Epps. What if I told you that insanity is being told that taking a life for the good of the rest of world is the best way to go about settling criminal affairs at the end of which they tell you to kill those who bear witness to it, simply to cover up their own irrational fears. Because they know that in the end, no one wants to see you as the one who silenced the enemy. No one but the person beneath the whip." She paused and gave him a broken smile. "Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?"

Joe attempted to lighten the mood a bit and laughed. "Hey! I bet that was one wicked bloodbath!" he joked. When Terra looked at him and didn't share his amusement, his laughter died and he held up a hand. "Hey, man, I'm just messin' with you, all right? Don't get all Jet Li on me and shit."

She arched her brows at that. "Ah, Li Lianjie, otherwise known by his stage name as Jet Li. Chinese martial artist, actor, film producer, Wushu champion, and international film star born in Beijing. He trained for three years with Wu Bin and won his his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team. After retiring from Wushu at age 17, he went on to win great acclaim in China as an actor making his debut with the film Shaolin Temple made in 1982. He went on to star in many critically acclaimed martial arts epic films, most notably the Once Upon A Time In China series, in which he portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung. And - "

Epps held up a hand. "Take it easy, hard drive," he joked.

"You know a lot about other things, but we still don't know much about you," Lennox pointed out, "Maybe you could share some stuff with us."

Terra looked at them. "Why would you be interested in my life?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Epps countered, "Hell, you've seen it all and done it all, right?" When she nodded, he chuckled. "So share with us."

"Uh, very well," Terra said; she didn't seem uncomfortable, but instead, pleased that they wanted to know a little bit more about her personally, "What would you like to know?"

"Well, what was your childhood like?" Epps asked, "I mean, I'm sure there had to be some good points. They couldn't have all been bad."

Ironhide awoke from recharge and he was about to chastise them for their loud volume, but stopped when he heard what they were talking about. He tuned in a little more to hear what Terra was saying. After all, she hadn't even told HIM anything like this.

Terra thought about it and faintly smiled. "No, not every frigid detail of my life was negative." she said, "There were a few rare moments that I did cherish."

_A five year old Terra was sitting in her cell, quietly studying the skeleton of a bird sitting inside of a tiny cage. She was intrigued by the intricacies that made up the creature. Behind her, Number Four walked up carrying a tray filled with food. She looked over when he knocked on the door and he carefully pushed the tray inside. She smiled and waved at him through the bars and he waved back before quickly rushing off to return to his room._

"I was closest to Number Four, but only in the first six years of my life," Terra continued, "Sometimes when I was punished and could not eat dinner, he would sneak food in for me through the slot at my door when everyone had gone to bed. Sometimes he even brought me dessert when he could. My brothers and I rarely engaged one another except when we had to train, and as I grew older, I felt no real connection with them, I was too focused on work; I was driven with the desire to learn everything that I could to make myself stronger and better. Unfortunately, things became even worse when they aged progressively faster than I had. Number Six was a real problem too; he constantly attempted to earn the favor of our maker which caused us to quarrel a lot."

"Who was your maker?" Joe asked.

"Nicholas Bertram," Terra continued, "He was a man who boasted his intellect to the Majestic 12 and believed that he could create a super human race by utilizing what he believed was the Allspark's power to do it. At first, they thought his plan was insane, but after many failed attempts, destroyed donors and sick offspring, Number One was born. He came into the picture strong and devoid of morality. He was truly the perfect soldier. So they wanted to go further after the president expressed great interest in the project and create many more, study how the human DNA reacted to the Allspark's energy."

Lennox frowned. "But I heard it from Ironhide that Doctor Michaels was the one who created you and your brothers."

Terra chuckled softly. "No. That's not entirely true. Nicholas Bertram was the man behind the idea, Doctor Michaels was the man behind the result."

They were quiet for a while before Terra continued.

"When I was eleven years old, I had killed my first criminal," she began again, "An inmate on death row scheduled to die. My masters thought that it was the perfect opportunity to test my skills. The man's name was Isaac Stross. He had murdered fifteen women and cut them up into little pieces. Needless to say, the world saw him as insane, but he believed that he was perfectly normal. He truly believed that what he was doing was okay. They sent him to a dark cell away from the other inmates and sooner after that, I was sent there. They thought that it would be interesting to test Isaac and keep him in the dark, unable to see his killer."

_Isaac Stross sat on his knees in the darkened cell, looking around for signs of any movement._

_"You can't break an unbreakable mind, doctor," he called, chuckling with contempt, "You can try, but in the end, you'll lose."_

_Terra was quiet for a moment, studying the pathetic thing in the cell. "I don't know about that, Isaac."_

"At first, he toyed with the idea that it was all a joke. That they were simply trying to shake him. I stepped inside and asked him if he felt remorse for those he killed. Of course, he took my question light - heartedly and asked if I was a family member seeking revenge."

_"Revenge?" Terra said, softly, "I'm afraid you're mistaken, my friend. Revenge suggests that you have done me wrong at some point in my life. But on the contrary, you've done wrong to the world. I'm not here for me. I'm here for the lives you've taken."_

_Isaac laughed coldly when the lights came on and the young eleven year old stood before him with her hands behind her back. She was holding a screwdriver and her face was cold, pitiless and yet, her eyes somewhat sad for a little girl._

_"Is this a joke?" he sneered, "You're just a little brat kid."_

_Terra smiled, those violet pools pierced into his head. "That is where you're wrong, Mister Stross. PAINFULLY wrong." she told him, "You are in a room. It's as they say in a famous 2004 film; 'You might be in the room that you die in'."_

_Isaac smirked and laughed. Terra's face was unchangeable and rather disturbing for a little girl._

_"You seem to enjoy playing with others for your own petty amusement, Isaac," she whispered, "Would you like to play with me?"_

O

"He wasn't as much of a challenge as they said he would be," Terra finished, "He tried to escape the cell and test me; so I put a screwdriver in the base of his skull."

The entire time, the guys were listening with shock on their faces.

"Wow," Fig said, "That's nuts."

Joe took a handful of peanuts and shoveled some in his mouth. His questions were simple and rather naive to the woman, but she didn't take entirely too much offense to them. "What kind of criminal do you despise the most, Terra?" he asked, "I'm sure you've seen 'em all."

By now, Terra tilted her head at her cards. "I don't take favorites when it comes to criminals, Joseph. They're all repulsive to me."

"But I mean this; what do you say gets your guts churning the most?" Joe asked, smiling.

Terra frowned in deep thought before she answered. "Those who harm children."

They all nodded their heads with murmurs of agreement. Mutually, they shared a disgust for anyone who could do such a thing.

"Once, I was passing through the Paris streets during a mission when I came across a family leaving church; a father of two younger boys and their mother." Terra continued, "The father was yelling at his children because they had misbehaved in church. I was a bit surprised by the mother's behavior as well; she seemed to ignore it, act as if it wasn't happening to her own flesh and blood. I found that this bothered me the most, those who simply ignore the crime as if it wasn't there."

_Terra stood in the church parking lot, disturbed by the sight playing before her, the sounds of the children's wails stabbed through her like a knife. The angry father smacked one of the boys across the face and when he attempted to do it again, that was when she moved immediately and grabbed his wrist to stop him from striking them again. The man looked up at her in surprise and needless to say, the woman did as well._

_"Je ne peux pas permettre que (I cannot allow that)," she told the man calmly, "Ne pas frapper de nouveau l'enfant (Do not strike the child again)."_

_The man glared at her indignantly. "Cela ne vous concerne pas (This doesn't concern you)!"_

_Terra didn't release her grip on his arm and he did struggle to be free, but his movements were useless. "Un vrai homme ne serait pas mettre la main sur un enfant (A real man wouldn't lay his hands against a child)," she said, her voice low with restrained anger, "Faites-le encore, et je promets vos mains va devenir ma propriété personnelle (Do it again, and I promise your hands will become my personal property)."_

_The father's face went red with anger. "Faire chier (Piss off)!" he spat._

_Terra's lips tightened and her voice came out again in a colder, menacing manner. "Très bien alors (Alright then)."_

"So what did you do?" Fig asked.

"I broke his arms." Terra answered, speaking rigidly with her next sentence, "There is no excuse for physically abusing a child."

Lennox made a displeased sound. "Maybe we should change the subject?" he advised.

Fig, Epps and Joe nodded their heads in agreement.

"Okay then," Joe announced in a goofy tone of voice. He pushed a collection of quarters, dimes and nickles into the pile of money that had already formed in the middle of the table, "I raise you, Lennox. Nastiest shit you've ever done."

Lennox laughed at that and waved him off. "Nah. I don't kiss and tell."

"Come on, bro!" Fig hooted, "Share with us the deets!"

"No!"

Joe sighed and turned to Terra now. "How 'bout you, White House pit bull?" he teased, "You got any nasty bedroom tales for us?"

Terra shook her head. "No. I don't." she said, "No stories."

"None?" Fig questioned, somewhat surprised, "None at all?"

"None," Terra replied.

Epps seemed to sense that there was more to that simple answer than the others could catch on just yet. He interjected immediately. "Hey guys, let's deal the cards again, okay?" he suggested almost too hastily to be ignored by Lennox sitting beside her.

Joe caught it too and held up a hand to Terra. "Hold up a minute there. Just answer this question for me: Are you a virgin?"

The question seemed to throw Terra a bit because she frowned intensely. "What?"

"Are you a virgin?"

Terra regained her composure and spoke professionally. "A virgin in what precise use?" she asked.

"You haven't had sex." Fig said, skeptically, "Come on, man. You know what we're talking about."

Epps arched his brows with a smile. "That actually makes a lot of sense," he said, "She's a virgin."

"Precisely," Terra replied, as if their shock had no consequence, "Virginity suggests one who has no experience in a particular subject or activity. So yes, I have not engaged in physical intimacy with another."

It stunned the men in the room, but Lennox wanted to restore order. "Guys, come on. Just shut up and let's finish the game." she insisted.

"How does that happen?" Joe asked, throwing his arms in the air; he glanced briefly at Lennox. "Didn't you say this chick was like, what, 35?"

Terra still sat calmly. "I will be 36 in a month."

Epps sighed impatiently. "You guys are hilarious. All right, come on, don't be mean."

Joe shrugged his shoulders. "I ain't being mean," he said, "She's a virgin. I wanna help the chick out. Get her laid, you know."

Terra knotted her brow and her voice seemed slightly edged, though she spoke with a professional demeanor and started to stand up. "I'm afraid that I must leave," she told them, "I need to sleep now. I'm getting up early to do my exercises."

She disappeared from the warehouse and Lennox slapped Joe on his shoulders, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Dumbass!" he snapped.

Terra strolled out into the night, but stopped to stare up at the moon. She could hear a faint voice calling and struggled to blot it out, but it seemed to get stronger and louder. Groaning, she gripped her head with one hand, struggling to calm it down.

Fortunately, it didn't stay.

Terra knew it would be back soon anyway.


	6. Depart

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Depart**

Terra awoke early as she said she would.

The concept of boredom wasn't too common with her, but she did feel a bit fidgety that morning after she had performed her daily exercises, so she decided to occupy herself until the others woke up by counting the stock pile of ammunition in the storage hall of the rear building. Her actions eventually called Sideswipe's attention and he laughed when he saw her kneeling inside the storage room, piling ammunition shells in nice, neat piles that looked too neat to mess up.

"Wow, is this what you've been doing all morning?" he asked.

Terra arched her brows as if it was extremely interesting. "There are precisely 420,650 ammunition shells in this room," she said.

"Hey, do you think I can have a word with you for a little bit?" Sideswipe asked.

Terra stood up and dusted herself off. "Of course."

"Let's head outside," Sideswipe suggested, "and take a little drive."

Terra was surprised by the offer, but nonetheless took him up on it. They drove through the outside of the base in circles and even along the beach side. Sideswipe was quiet for the longest time and Terra wondered just what it was that was bothering him.

"Something troubles you, Sideswipe." she said.

His dashboard dials flickered a bit. "How'd you guess?" he asked, quietly.

"We've never spent time alone together before like this," Terra said, "I take it this excuse to drive around has something to do with me."

Sideswipe sighed and parked at the edge of the beach. "You're too good at that sometimes," he muttered, "Or I'm that obvious."

"What's wrong, Sideswipe?" Terra asked, gently.

Sideswipe took a moment before he started again. "Hey, I guess you and Ironhide got a strange thing going on, huh?"

Terra raised her brows. "I thought it was obvious."

"Well, he hasn't really..." Sideswipe began. He trailed off to find the right words. "Look, I ain't saying he's been bad or anything like that, but he's been keeping something from you. I had to tell you because you have a right to know."

Terra sat impassive. She was either good at containing her surprise or too surprised to react.

"And that would be?" she asked, in an even voice.

"Before arriving to Earth, Ironhide had a mate, I don't know if he still does or not because his interface moments are none of my business," Sideswipe continued, "You know Chromia, right?"

"Yes. We've talked briefly in passing. She seems kind."

"She and Ironhide were together," Sideswipe explained, somewhat hesitantly, "Like I said; I don't know if they still are or not. He's been rather dodgy around her lately and I've never heard him mention anything about you when she asks."

Terra was quiet for a long time. Sideswipe wasn't sure if she'd even heard him and then, she spoke. Her voice was as quiet as a whisper.

"I see." she finally answered.

Sideswipe felt relief and somewhat sympathy. "You do?"

"Yes. You don't need to explain any further. I understand."

They were silent again.

"Are you okay with that?" Sideswipe asked.

Terra didn't get the chance to answer because her phone rang in her pocket, interrupting their conversation. She picked it up and noticed that the caller ID read: M. BANES. TRANQUILITY, NEVADA. She flipped it open and took a soft breath.

"Terra speaking," she said, her voice so quiet and yet, so cold it chilled Sideswipe's circuits.

_"Terra; hey, it's Mikaela,"_ the voice on the other end said, _"We have a serious problem on our hands and we need you here!"_

Terra's throat tightened; she still attempted to process what Sideswipe had just told her and Sideway's cold laugh echoed in the back of her mind, a cruel mockery in her mind. She shook that off and spoke back to Mikaela in a forced, even voice.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

_"We just had a Decepticon jump me in my shop asking about the Allspark shard! Sam might be in trouble!"_

Terra nodded her head. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

There was a moment's pause before Mikaela continued, worry in her voice._ "You sound like something's bothering you, is anything wrong?"_ Mikaela asked.

"I'm fine, Mikaela," Terra said, a little too harshly, "I'll be at your home shortly."

The entire time, her hand was slowly crushing the phone in her grip, straining it to the point that she crushed it into pieces, silencing their connection.

O

Terra started gathering her jacket together and Alexis waited for her in a helicopter to take her to the airport upon her request. The activity had roused Ironhide from his sleep and he stepped out to the helipad to see what Terra was doing.

"Terra, what's going on?" he asked, "Where are you going?"

She didn't look up at him. "Sam's in danger. Mikaela called me requesting my assistance."

Ironhide frowned. "I should go with you."

"No."

Ironhide looked momentarily surprised. "No?" he repeated, "What do you mean, 'no'?"

"The declaration of a negative as it sounds," Terra said, her voice slightly cold, "Surely you can understand such a simple word."

Ironhide sensed something wrong now and Alexis immediately stepped into the helicopter to avoid seeing the confrontation. "What's the matter, Terra?" he asked, "Something's wrong. Something's bothering you. You've been acting different lately."

Terra looked up at him and despite the goggles on her face, he could swear she that was glaring daggers at him. "I want to know something, Ironhide; and do not deny a thing," she said, still just as acidly, "Was I merely a plaything?"

"What?"

"A plaything. I would like to know the truth," Terra continued, "for a change."

"What are you talking about?" Ironhide demanded.

"Chromia. She is your mate, is she not?" Terra asked, with rigidness.

Ironhide looked stunned before he shook his head. "Terra, listen; I was going to tell you-"

"When?"

"Eventually! It became complicated!"

Terra tilted her head at that. She didn't raise her voice, it was always kept low. "How complicated can it truly be for you?" she asked, quietly, "There are only two worlds here; yours and mine. She can benefit you more than I could."

Ironhide couldn't believe what he was hearing. He scowled now. "Who told you about that?" he demanded. "Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter," Terra said, softly, "I can see now that I was merely a game to you. But I will not be your placeholder. Considering the circumstances, perhaps this was for the best anyway. I was foolish to have put myself in something so insane."

She sounded hurt, but calm and even at the same time. She climbed into the helicopter and Ironhide watched in stunned disbelief as it took to the skies. Lennox had seen the entire thing from the warehouse and he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Major Lennox!" came the shout from Doctor Gordon standing behind the door that led to the autopsy room, "I think you need to take a look at this."

Lennox gave Ironhide a piteous look before he followed the doctor down to the autopsy room. He was standing over the dissected body of Number Four and he looked deeply troubled. Lennox didn't like that look.

"What's the matter, Gordon?" he asked.

Doctor Gordon gestured toward a computer. "I've been running some tests on the subject's blood and I came across a very strange find," he told the Major, "Look at the cells here." He gestured to a few bundles of sickly looking yellow swirling with the unnaturally darker red cells.

"What is that?" Lennox asked, stunned.

"Clots," Doctor Gordon said, "Originally, I thought they make have been from some kind of sickness; I was half right. I'll get to that later, but I also discovered that there was significant damage to the subject's brain as well. The signs point to cases of delirium, slight cases of psychosis and even thought disorders. My first thought was they make have always had these conditions, but I noticed that in studying some of the undamaged brain cells of the body, they acted...thirsty."

Lennox frowned. "Thirsty?"

Doctor Gordon turned his attention toward another screen and started typing in a few keys before Lennox took notice to a small tube connecting to the wall and toward the compartment housing the tissue samples. It produced a stream of energy that caused the cells on screen to go ballistic before they started dividing. Lennox didn't really add up what the significance to the demonstration was and Doctor Gordon could see this.

"The energy that I just shot to the sample was a small dose of energy from the Allspark shard housed in storage," he explained, "When the energy reaches the tissue sample, it causes a reaction. But watch when I add a sample from a normal human being."

Lennox could do nothing but.

Doctor Gordon placed a petri dish of another sample inside and performed the same test. On screen, nothing seemed to happen. The cells remained stagnant and still. Lennox frowned at Doctor Gordon in confusion.

"Wait, I still don't understand what this has to do with Terra." he said.

Doctor Gordon sighed and turned to him completely now. "Major Lennox, Terra's been coming to me in confidence about having trouble sleeping," he said, "I was concerned about what sort of chemicals would react to her, so I offered a heavy tranquilizer. They're usually used on larger mammals, but with Terra's immunity to certain chemicals, I had to chance it. I became concerned because she was starting to show some very bizarre symptoms. She seemed to be more alert in the early mornings and less so in the evening. Also, she showed signs of changes in sensation and perception; I attempted to startle her with a bull horn and she barely reacted to it at all."

Lennox frowned, stunned. "What? But she seemed fine when we talked to her!"

"You haven't noticed it," Doctor Gordon said, "There were also a few times when she seemed to have a bit of difficult concentrating, which as we know isn't like her at all. I'm sure you've taken notice to some of her emotional and personality changes as well."

Lennox thought about it and his eyes widened. "She had seemed a bit more anxious lately, but with things going on-"

Doctor Gordon shook his head. "No, it's not just that," he said, "Last night, when she went to the restroom, I could hear her coughing. After she left, I explored a bit and found traces of her blood inside the sink. In cases of Hemoptysis, there is usually a history of illness that involves it; but Terra's been coughing up blood a lot frequently lately and-"

"Coughing up blood?" Lennox said, stunned, "She's been coughing up blood?"

"Yes," Doctor Gordon answered, "Which is why you need to see this too."

He turned to another computer screen and typed a few keys, revealing an image of blood swirling together. It looked dark like Number Four's, but normal as far as Terra was concerned.

"This is a sample of her blood I took a few months ago," Doctor Gordon told him, "As you can see, everything looks fine."

He pressed another key and a new screen appeared. This one revealed sickly clots floating around in Terra's blood. Lennox's eyes widened in shock and he took a step closer to get a better view of the horrible sight.

"When did this start to show?" he asked.

"In a few weeks," Doctor Gordon said, "It seems that the subjects rely on the energy of the Allspark to live."

Lennox looked at him gravely. "So Terra's..."

"Dying? Without the Allspark, she will."

O

Ironhide was horrified by the news.

"What?" he exclaimed, "Are you certain?"

Lennox nodded his head weakly. "Yes, Ironhide; the doctor's results were clear," he said, "Terra kept it from us all. From what Doctor Gordon explained, she didn't want to get us worried given the issues we've been having with the Decepticons. She felt that there were more important things to worry about."

Ironhide groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose, muttering to himself. "Primus, Terra; why didn't you tell me?"

Sideswipe rolled up and gave Ironhide an apologetic look. "Hey boss, listen; I might have mentioned something to her this morning," he said.

Ironhide scowled at him. "What? What did you say?" he demanded.

"We talked about Chromia, Ironhide," Sideswipe said, softly, "I had to tell her."

Ironhide's glare turned absolutely frigid. "WHAT?" he spat, "You said what?"

Sideswipe held up two hands when Ironhide took a threatening step forward. "I'm sorry," he said, "I had to do it. You weren't going to and I had to let her know the truth before she found out herself and got upset about it!"

"Well you see how well that worked!" Ironhide roared.

Lennox held up his hands. "You guys need to calm down!" he insisted.

Ironhide snarled and turned. "I have to go!"

Sideswipe scoffed in disbelief. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Stay out of my business, Sideswipe!" Ironhide shouted back at him, "You've messed up enough!"


	7. Megatron

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Megatron**

Mikaela had informed Terra to meet her at the airport. They were planning on arriving at Sam's college to investigate a serious matter; apparently, Sam had explained that he was experiencing hallucinations of symbols after he had contacted the Allspark sliver that had been embedded in his sweater the day of Mission City's fall. When she arrived, Terra noticed that she looked tense and she was covered in sweat, like she had wrestled with a large animal.

"Terra, I need you to see something real quick," she told the woman.

Terra nodded. "Of course."

Mikaela led her to her car that was parked outside of human eyes behind a building. She walked to the trunk and popped it open, revealing a sticker-covered case. Inside, there was thumping and a a collection of furious curses. Mikaela gave Terra a look.

"Be ready, he's a jumper," she warned.

Terra nodded and then, Mikaela popped the case open. Suddenly, a small, blue shape jumped out of the case and Mikaela's hands shot out, grabbing the shape before it could flee. Terra studied the jagged, distorted features of the tiny robot, struggling and squirming beneath Mikaela's grip.

"Dammit, wait till I get the Decepticons on ya'!" he spat, "You'll be a greasy little skid mark on the ass side of this mud ball planet!"

Terra's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" she demanded.

The Decepticon laughed weakly. "Hey, I don't talk to no freaks, you hear?"

Terra shrugged her shoulders calmly. "Fair enough," she said. She turned to Mikaela. "Would you by any chance know of where we could find a good can opener?"

The Decepticon yelped and struggled in fright at the concept. "Okay, relax!" he cried, holding up his hands, "I'll talk!" He took a moment to calm himself before speaking. "The name's Wheelie and I was sent to get the shard. If I don't go back with it, they'll scrap me!"

Terra looked at Mikaela. "Don't let him out of your sight," she advised, "He could still be of use."

Wheelie scowled. "I ain't going down easily!"

Terra nodded her head and reached into the trunk of the Autobot. "That's why we have this." she told him, holding up a coil of chain.

Wheelie groaned at the sight of the chain. "Ah shit..." he griped.

O

Mikaela and Terra arrived at the university of Hamilton Hall in a short time given her driving speed. They made their way onto the grounds and immediately, Terra's goggles scanned the entire perimeter. She pinpointed a mechanical energy source from the men's dorm building and she approached, performing a digital x-ray scan. She stopped at an image of what appeared to be two shapes in the middle of conversation. The goggles filtered an oscilloscope readout of the conversation. Sam's voice played back.

"It's Sam," Terra told Mikaela, "He's there."

They made their way to the dorm with Mikaela carrying a cursing, annoyed Wheelie in the case. They stopped and noticed a tan skinned teenager standing in front of one of the doors, angrily protesting about being left out of the action.

"Come on, Sam!" he protested, "I'll sit quietly and watch!"

Mikaela frowned at him. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded.

Terra had performed a scan on the boy. "Leonardo Ponce de Léon Spitz," she said. She looked at Mikaela, leaving Leo to gape at the knowledge. "He isn't trouble, let's get in."

They pushed the door open and found Sam pinned down by a small, skinny, yet attractive young woman. Sam looked horrified when he saw Mikaela standing there with Terra and Leo peeking in to get a good view.

"Is that your girlfriend?" the woman purred, seductively.

Mikaela shook her head. Terra could hear a certain resignation in her voice. "Ex." she said, curtly.

She started to go, but Terra glared at the kneeling girl. "Let Sam Witwicky go, you filth!" she spat.

Sam immediately attempted to get free and almost reached the door where Leo and Mikaela were standing, but the woman let out a shriek and her tongue suddenly extended outward in an unholy manner, segmented with metal. Terra moved before Sam could be seized, grabbing the massive appendage. The "woman" screamed again and her entire fleshy form folded away like armor plating, revealing a silver, jagged shape of a Decepticon Pretender.

Sam shrieked in fright and Leo wailed as well. The trio fled as the Pretender and Terra wrestled about in the halls attempting to subdue one another, though neither one showed signs of faltering; the Pretender's weapons went off, sending rockets whistling through the air. The erupted and took out a portion of a wall, sending frightened students scattering.

"Ah! What the hell is that?" Leo shouted, over the roar of the explosions.

The Pretender raised her claws and slashed Terra across the face, drawing three wicked cuts across her lip and cheek. Terra snarled with effort and drew back her legs, kicking the metal chest of the Decepticon with all her might. The Pretender sailed through the air with a metallic scream and plunged through the window, plummeting to the ground below. Sam, Leo and Mikaela were already running to the car when the Pretender recovered from her fall.

Terra stared down through the shattered window and climbed out, scaling down the length of the building with ease before she landed on her feet, rushing for the car that the three were heading for. The Pretender was also coming for them.

"Terra, come on!" Mikaela cried.

Terra ran for the car and jumped inside beside Leo in the backseat, just as the Pretender gave a shriek and launched herself onto the hood of the car. Mikaela gunned the engine and backed out of the parking lot, but not before charging the car toward a pole.

"Kiss this, bitch!" she spat.

She plowed the car into the pole, crushing the Pretender into a broken pile of metal and rubber. Then, she pulled away and drove out into the street.

O

Leo was desperate for answers.

"So what the hell was that thing?" he demanded.

Sam looked back at him and gestured with a sharp jab of his thumb. "That was a little baby compared to the big ones!" he told him.

Leo's eyes widened. "So the robots are real after all?"

Terra looked at him now. "Yes, they're very much real," she said, "The government attempted to cover up the stories with their petty lies, believing that it would keep the public from understanding the truth. But the truth will eventually come to light."

Leo grinned, despite his unease. "I knew it!" Then, he looked at Terra and tilted his head. "Hang on, something's odd."

She shifted, attempting to touch up the bleeding cuts on her face. "What?"

"This is gonna sound weird, but...you're kinda hot." Leo said, smiling.

Terra returned the smile. "I appreciate the sentiment."

Sam rolled his eyes and glanced back at her. "You attract some weird ones, Terra."

Terra chuckled softly. "Yes, I suppose I do," she replied. Then, she winced and doubled over, coughing and attempting to cover her mouth with her hands. The sound was so horrible, Sam glanced back and watched as she spat up a small puddle of blood on her hands.

"Jesus!" Leo gasped.

Terra cleared her throat. "I'm fine." she said, quickly.

"Fine?" Sam exclaimed, "You're not fine. I just saw you cough up blood!"

Terra glared at the concerned faces staring at her. Even Leo -who didn't know anything about her - looked somewhat worried. "There's more important things going on right now; I don't want you to worry about me, Sam," she said.

Overhead, a black MH-53J 'Pave Low' helicopter passed them. Mikaela gave a shriek of fright and slammed on the breaks a minute too late as a thick cord shot out from the helicopter with a claw attached to the end. It snatched the car by the rear and lifted it up high into the sky. Leo was screaming like a murdered victim as they were carried high over the ocean and Terra slapped a hand over his mouth, leering at him from behind her goggles.

"Shut up!" she spat, "That isn't helping!"

Sam looked up. "What is it?" he cried, "What does he want?"

Leo grimaced and glared at them. "Okay, so what else don't I know, all right? Since you guys forgot to mention some minor details!" he shouted.

Sam gestured to Terra. "She's a super soldier trained and bred by the government."

Leo's eyes bugged out and he looked at Terra in disbelief.

Finally, the helicopter passed over an abandoned steel foundry and then, released the car. It plummeted from the air with the group screaming inside and they crashed through the glass, landing below upside down. They were stunned, but unharmed, much to their shock.

"Oh shit!" Leo cried, "We're gonna die!"

Suddenly, before they could recover, a loud humming sound pierced the air; a buzz saw noise and the source appeared directly through the car, cutting it cleanly in half. Everyone scattered and looked up at the sight of Starscream looming over them, grinning wickedly.

"Look what we have here!" he hissed.

They rushed up a flight of stairs and then the silver, jagged shape of Megatron appeared on the side, glowering with those red, menacing optics focused on Sam.

"Boy!" he bellowed, "Come here!"

Sam took several slow steps forward before the Decepticon lord, holding out his hands.

"T-Take it easy," he stammered, "You can have me, just let them go!"

Megatron snarled. "Shut up!" he spat, raising his claws and snatching the boy right off of the walkway.

Terra lunged now with a fierce shout, but she was seized by Starscream. He laughed cruelly at her efforts to be free.

"Let him go!" Terra shouted.

Megatron glared up at her, holding Sam down on a metal slab with his claws. "Keep quiet," he ordered, "When I'm finished with the boy, you'll be next to receive the same treatment!" He paused briefly, slowly smirking. "After all, we have some catching up to do, don't we, Terra?"

Terra snarled furiously. "Here I am, then!" she challenged, "Come and get me!"

"In time," Megatron said, turning his attention back to Sam, "We have some delicate work to do." He gestured to what appeared to be a microscope sitting on a pipe. "Dotor, examine this alien specimen, would you?"

The microscope shifted and bent, taking the shape of a white spider-like Decepticon that made his way on top of Sam. it had huge optics and a secondary pair that seemed to act the same way as human glasses. He zeroed in on Sam's face.

"I'll scan you. Let's take a look at your face, hmmm..." the Doctor mused.

Terra grunted and struggled against Starscream's grip. "Don't!" she shouted.

The Doctor skittered across Sam's face, muttering to himself. "Hmm. Ze odd job. Information!" he hissed. He raised his metallic fingers and snapped them. Two smaller Decepticons flew into the air, carrying a wriggling probe. Depsite Sam's protests, the Doctor slid the disgusting thing down his throat. Leo and Mikaela grimaced at the horrible sight as it wormed its way from Sam's nose and latched onto the Doctor. It produced a bizarre collection of Sam's most recent memories, including Cybertronian symbols.

"Oh, there they are..." Megatron sighed with delight.

Sam groaned, struggling to clear his throat. "What?"

"These symbols can lead us to the Energon source!" Megatron said.

The Doctor pondered this and gestured to Sam. "We must have ze brain on ze table! Chop chop!"

Sam panicked and looked up at Megatron in fright. Needless to say, Terra looked equally disturbed. "Brain? What does he mean by my brain?" he demanded.

Megatron smirked. "Well, you have something on your mind, something I need..."

The Doctor began to poke and prod at Sam's nose and mouth, peeking his head in a little to see what would be the proper method of extracting Sam's brain. The entire time, Sam talked to Megatron and tried to reason with him.

"Hold on, I know you're pissed, I know you're pissed because I tried to kill, you and it's completely understandable!" he stammered, "If somebody tried to kill me, I'd be upset too! I think we have an opportunity here to start anew, and-" The Doctor pulled his lips up, distorting Sam's voice. "-and develop our relationship, and see what it leads us, okay? So, you just call the Doctor Inspector off and let's just talk for five seconds!"

Just then, the left wall blew out and Bumblebee emerged. Starscream released his grip on Terra and began to open fire on the Autobot scout. Terra, Mikaela and Leon hurried down the length of the walkway and Sam immediately followed, dodging hot showers of sparks from laser fire that contacted the old metal.

"Go!" Leo cried, "Go!"

Terra caught sight of the blue and red shape of Optimus moments before he emerged into the warehouse. She lost sight of Sam as they rushed outside and immediately hurried into Bumblebee moments before riding off.


	8. Symbols

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Symbols**

_"Citizens of the human hive, your leaders have withheld the truth. You are not alone in the universe. We have lived among you, hidden, but no more. As you've seen, we destroy your cities at will, unless you turn over this boy. If you resist, we will destroy the world as you know it."_

Hiding didn't help matters.

Skids, Mudflap and Bumblebee remained hidden with Sam, Mikaela, Leo and Terra in an abandoned factory to keep out of sight from the Decepticon's watchful eyes. After the disturbing broadcast worldwide from the bizarre new Decepticon demanding Sam, they couldn't take any chances and had to keep themselves out of view for a while. It also didn't help given the loss of Optimus Prime in the battle from the warehouse.

Mikaela was tending to Terra's cuts by cleaning them with some alcohol. Terra had to remove her goggles in order for Mikaela to get the entire length of the cuts on her face. As soon as she touched the cuts just the slightest, Terra jolted a bit.

"Sorry," Mikaela said, apologetically.

Terra cleared her throat after a moment's hesitation. "I should be sorry as well, Mikaela."

She laughed gently. "For what?"

"For being short with you the other day."

Mikaela smiled and shook her head, dabbing at the cut along Terra's cheek. "By this time, Terra, I'm used to anything," she told her. She paused and looked at Terra, who was staring at the ground. "So, what's going on that you don't want us to know?"

Terra sighed and shut her eyes briefly before she looked up at her. "Mikaela, I'm dying."

Her hand froze and she stared at Terra in disbelief. "What?" she said, stunned.

Terra went on to explain everything to her and when she was done, Mikaela looked horrified. "I didn't want to tell Sam, I thought he would be worried," she said, "I couldn't tell Ironhide either and, since he already has a..." She trailed off, embarrassed before sighing and collecting her thoughts, resuming a more professional look. "He has a mate; the Autobot female Chromia. I told him that it was for the best that he remain with her."

Mikaela laughed in surprise. "Terra, I don't believe what I'm hearing. Were you using that as a coverup? Were you jealous of Chromia?"

Terra looked startled. "What? Of course not!" she said, "Jealousy heavily implies-"

Mikaela's humor faded and she bent down to reach into her jacket. The Allspark sliver was still inside the film canister and she held it up to Terra. "You said you needed the energy of the Allspark to keep you alive, right?" she said, "This shard's pretty small, but would it help?"

Terra took the shard and frowned. "I'm...not sure, Mikaela," she said, "I've never received the energy like that before."

Behind them, Leo and Sam started in on an argument. They stood up and watched the two boys before Sam flung Leo's phone to the ground.

"Dude, the government can track us with these!" Sam shouted.

Leo looked shocked. "They can track us through the phones?" he cried. He looked at Terra in unease. "You worked for the government. Can they really track us like that?"

Terra nodded. "Yes."

Leo looked pained and gripped his head with two hands. He started having a fit moments before Terra stood up and walked toward him. "I can't be here!" he cried, "This isn't my fault! I'm not a part of this mess! Technically, I'm a hosta-"

Terra suddenly nerve pinched him and he slumped to the ground like a dead weight, out cold. Skids and Mudflap laughed raucously.

"Bitch went down like a rock!" Mudflap hooted.

Terra looked over at Sam and Mikaela with a glimmer of annoyance on her face. "He was giving me a headache..." she said.

After a while, it began to get darker, so Terra built a fire from an old oil drum and some newspapers. The sight was sombre as the three Autobots and the humans gathered around it. Skids and Mudflap were unusually silent as they surveyed their surroundings to be sure no Decepticon was coming for them. Bumblebee appeared to stare sadly into the fire, obviously thinking about the death of his leader. It didn't help make Sam's guilt go away.

"Bee, if you hate me I understand. I messed up. I'm sorry." he said.

Bumblebee looked up at him and spoke through his radio. _"You are the person I care for most in my life, and if there is anything you need I won't be far away."_

Terra gave Sam a sympathetic look before she added more newspaper to the fire. Mikaela walked up to her and patted her shoulder. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked.

"Being near the Allspark sliver does seem to curb my need to cough," Terra told her, crunching up a large wad of paper, "Though it's not enough to fix the issue indefinitely. I have to receive the energy in larger doses by way of electroshock therapy."

Mikaela smiled weakly. "At least it's helping a little."

Terra smiled in agreement, staring down at the gently crackling fire. "Yes. I appreciate it. Though we will have to tell Sam eventually."

"Why haven't you told him earlier?"

The two looked over at Sam as he began blaming himself for Optimus' death. Terra raised her brows and looked at Mikaela.

"That's why." she answered.

O

After a long time of thinking in silence, Sam stood up and paced around the fire deep in thought. "Okay, we need to figure out what these symbols mean," he said, "The ones I'm seeing in my head." He looked up at Skids and Mudflap. "Hey."

The two Autobots looked at him. "Huh?" Skids said.

Sam began to draw a symbol in the dirt and gestured to it. "Hey, you know the glyphs? These? The symbols that have been rattling around in my head?" he asked them.

Skids looked surprised and snapped his fingers thoughtfully before figuring it out. "That's old school, yo. That's like..." He grunted in frustration, trying to figure out the exact word before he smiled and nodded his head. "That's Cybertronian."

Mudflap sounded awestruck. "That's some serious stuff, right there." he agreed.

Sam frowned up at them. "They gotta mean something, like a map or like map," he said, "Like a map to an Energon source! Can you read this?"

Skids and Mudflap regarded each other with a clueless expression.

"Read?" Skids said.

Mudflap shook his head. "No. We don't really do much reading. Not so much."

Sam nodded. "If you can't read it, we got to find somebody who can."

Leo smiled and stood up. "I think I might know someone who can help us."

Sam and the others turned to him. "Who?" Sam asked.

"RoboWarrior." Leo answered.

Terra looked up at him. "Where can we find him?" she asked.

Leo smiled. "Not far from here," he told her, "We can still keep ourselves on the down low."

Sam nodded his head and Bumblebee transformed, opening his side doors to let them inside. Skids and Mudflap transformed and they pulled out of their hiding spot and out onto the empty road with Bumblebee leading the way.

During the drive, Leo was testing Terra. "So, can you pretty much use anything on hand to kill someone?" he asked.

Terra nodded her head. "Whatever is sufficient enough to cause damage."

Leo licked his lips thoughtfully before he reached into his over shirt and removed a pen. "How about this pen?" he asked.

"With enough speed and strength applied, a pen could be used to pierce through the cornea of the human eye and into the central retinal artery, causing significant blood loss if not tended to and the ink could possibly poison the blood. A sharp enough blow to the base of the skull could also incapacitate a human."

Leo looked amazed. "Whoa..."

Mikaela and Sam shared a laugh at Leo's reaction.

"So, what's the dead with those goggles anyway?" Leo asked, "Are they some kind of fashion statement or something?"

"No. They help me to see and perform scans of my surrounding area," Terra explained.

Leo looked intrigued by now. It never occurred to him that Terra couldn't see. "So, what; you're like, blind or something?"

Terra sighed and removed her goggles, turning to look at him with a skeptical grimace. "Almost," she replied, ignoring his surprised look before fitting her goggles back on, "Without them, determining colors from one another can be difficult. Seeing the facial details of a person can also be complicated unless I'm standing very close to them and even then, my sight still causes problems."

Leo nodded his head, following along though he seemed disturbed. Then, he smiled slightly. "So you can scan anybody and figure out everything about them?" he asked.

"I can, but only the physical details such as social security numbers, body mass index, age, and such. What makes a person an individual is not available to me," Terra continued, "I can also determine the threat level and temperament of a person. The higher the threat level is usually someone who is heavily armed or physically dangerous on an average scale. The highest rank is ten and the lowest would be a zero."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Leon straightened. "Okay, can you scan me?"

She knotted her brow and sighed. "Alright, if it will keep you quiet..."

Leo nodded. "Totally."

Terra focused her goggles on Leo's figure and performed a digital scan of him; skeletal and everything. Digital displays revealed his age, birth date and every physical detail of his person. A small window popped up that read: THREAT LEVEL 0.

Leo grinned. "So what am I?" he asked, "Tell me what my level is!"

Terra chuckled quietly. "I don't think I should."

"What is it?"

"You have a zero on the threat level."

Leo frowned. "Wait, zero's not all that bad is it?"

Sam and Mikaela started laughing loudly now.

"You're about as threatening as those kitten calendars you like so much!" Sam joked.

Leo grimaced. "Aww, come on, man!" he protested, "That's not funny!"

Terra couldn't resist her smile.

"What's their levels then?" Leo snapped, gesturing to Mikaela and Sam.

Terra performed scans on the two sitting in the front and received their information just as easily as she had with Leo. Two small windows popped up; Sam's read: THREAT LEVEL 2 and Mikaela's read: THREAT LEVEL 4. Not bad for civilians.

"Sam is a two and Mikaela is a four," Terra told him.

Mikaela grinned at the two boys. "Look at that; I am better than the both of you," she teased.

Leo scowled. "Yeah, I think she just likes you better!" he snapped, folding his arms across his chest. Then, he gestured to his own face and back to Terra's goggles. "The thing's bugged, I'm telling you! I'm a real threat deal right here!"

"Sit back and shut up, zero!" Mikaela laughed.

O

They pulled up in front of a deli and climbed out. Leo led the way inside, but the others took a moment to ponder their surroundings. Terra focused her gaze on two suspicious men standing on a street corner and Mikaela pulled her arm to get her to walk inside.

"Terra, don't worry about them, let's get inside," she urged.

Terra scowled, but followed the others inside. They were stunned when they saw the familiar face of former Agent Seymour Simmons standing behind the deli counter, angrily cussing out a customer who had tried to steal a pickle.

"That's him!" Leo cried, "That's Robo-Warrior!"

Sam blinked once. Twice. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Simmons gestured to the few customers inside the store. "That's it, shop's closed!" he told them, "Beat it!"

The surprised and somewhat irritated customers abandoned the shop after a moment's hesitation. As soon as everyone was cleared out, Simmons turned his attention to the familiar faces there. Terra waved at him with a smirk.

"Small world, Seymour." she said.

Leo looked at them. "You know him?" he asked.

Sam nodded. "We're old friends..." he said, reluctantly.

Simmons scowled and slapped a knife down on the counter before rounding it and stepping in Sam's face. "Old FRIENDS?" he snapped. "You are the case that shut down Sector Seven! Now that it disbanded, no security clearance, no retirement, no nothing! All because of you!" He glanced briefly at Mikaela. "And your little criminal girlfriend. Look at her now, so mature..." Then, his eyes focused on Terra. "And your crazy guard dog here."

Terra made a soft clicking sound with her teeth, bringing them together in a sudden move that made Simmons tense somewhat.

"Why are you here anyway." Simmons snapped.

"We need your help." Sam told him.

Simmons' brows went up mockingly. "Is that a fact?"

Sam got in his face now, all patience gone. "Look, I am slowly losing my mind, okay?" he nearly shouted, "I had a little crab bot plug in to my brain and start projecting little alien symbols like a freaking home movie! And on top of that, I am a wanted fugitive! So you think you got it rough?"

Simmons looked surprised. "You said it projected images from your brain?"

"Yeah."

Simmons nodded and gestured over his shoulder. "Meat locker, now!"

They followed Simmons into the cooler that contained many dead pigs hanging by meat hooks. He walked over to a small door and bent down to it, but paused and looked up at the others with a reluctant grimace.

"This is top secret," he told them, "Do not tell my mother."

Mikaela raised a brow. "You live with your momma?"

Simmons scowled indignantly. "No, my momma lives with me. There's a big difference."

He lifted the small door and revealed a set of stairs that led down into a secret bunker. He stepped down into it and the others eventually followed, though Leo was eying the dead pigs with disgust and caution.

"Swine flu, not good..." he said.

Simmons sighed. "Now you know: next time you eat a goat or a pig, there's a story behind it, sad little story."

He started to gather several folders and documents onto a table and spread them out for the others to see.

"Before I got fired, I looked through Sector Seven's crown jewel," he told them, "Several files of alien research point to one inescapable fact: the Transformers, they've been here a long, long time. How do I know?" He tossed a box file at Leo, to which the boy caught with slight difficulty. "Archeologists found these unexplained markings on ancient ruins all over the world: China, Egypt, Greece..." Then, he turned to a projector and switched it on, running an old film that revealed archeologists and the said markings.

Sam blinked in surprise. "Wow."

Simmons smiled. "Shot in 1932. These the symbols you're seeing in your head?" he asked.

"Yeah." Sam said.

Simmons stopped the film and pulled out a few black and white photos, images of what looked like ancient architecture from various points of the world - all displaying the same Cybertronian text on their walls.

"Same ones over here, right? So tell me, how did they end up all drawing the same thing?" Simmons paused, seemingly for dramatic emphasis. "Aliens. And I think some of them stayed. Check this out: Project Black Knife." He held up photos of many vehicles. "Robots in disguise, hiding here! We detected radioactive signatures all across the country. I pleaded on my knees with S-7 to investigate, but they said the readings were infinitesimal, that I was obsessed! Me! Can you imagine that?"

Terra stared at Mikaela, deadpanned. "The mind boggles..."

Mikaela giggled and tried to cover it up with her hand.

"This language predates the Autobots," Sam told Simmons, "Whatever it is, they won't be able to tell us anything."

Simmons sighed dejectedly. "Well, unless we can talk to a Decepticon, we've got nothing to run on."

Mikaela reacted to that. "I might know one." she told them.

O

Mikaela retrieved the case that contained Wheelie from inside of Bumblebee and brought it back to the underground bunker. She placed it onto the table and Wheelie's curses could be heard from inside. Mikaela gave them all a look.

"Watch out, I'm still working on him," she warned.

She popped the trunk open and Wheelie lunged out, a chain wrapped around his neck. Terra seized it moments before he could reach Simmons and snatch him by the throat. He thrashed furiously, screeching various Cybertronian curses before he spoke English.

"I will have so many Decepticons on your butt!" he raged.

Mikaela produced a blowtorch that she had brought with her from the trunk and pointed it at Wheelie. "Hey, behave!" she warned.

Sam looked shocked. "What is it, a Decepticon?"

Mikaela nodded, watching Terra curl the length of chain around her hand to keep a firm grip on Wheelie. "Yeah."

"And you're training him?" Sam suggested, a little surprised.

Mikaela sighed now. "I'm trying to."

Simmons watched Wheelie with awe as the Decepticon attempted to bite through the chains, but to no avail. "I spent my whole adult life combing the planet for aliens, and you're carrying around one in your purse like a little Chihuahua."

Wheelie scowled at that and turned to face him. "Huh? Do you want a throw down, you pubic 'fro-head?" he threatened.

Terra tugged slightly on the chain and glared at the Decepticon. "Hush!"

Mikaela bent down to Wheelie and smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about your eye. But if you're a good boy, then I'm not gonna put out your other eye," she said, in a soothing voice like she was speaking to a child, "I'm not gonna hurt you. Just tell me what these symbols are. Please?"

Wheelie smiled slightly and looked down at the documents, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Oh... oh, I know that, that's the language of the Primes!" he said, "I don't read it, but these guys..." He gestured to the photos of the old vehicles. "Where the frick did you find photos of these guys?"

Sam frowned. "Who are they?" he asked.

"Seekers, pal! Oldest of the old!" Wheelie told him. "They've been here for thousands of years, looking for something. I don't know what, nobody tells me nothing. But they'll translate those symbols for you." He smiled with pride and turned to a large North American map that Simmons had hanging. "And I know where to find them!"

His working optic shot out a thin green ray of light that separated and indicated several areas on the map.

"The closest one is Washington D.C.," Sam said, "We need to go now!"


	9. Jetfire

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Jetfire**

The Air and Space Museum was closed. That posed some complications for them.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Leo asked.

Simmons frowned thoughtfully and reached into Bumblebee's back seat, pulling out a jar containing several small pills. "Here, take one of these pills and slip it under your tongue," he told the boy, "It's the high concentrate Polymer they put in Oreo cookies. It flukes the polygraph every time."

Leo held out two hands. "Whoa, this is nuts!" he cried, "Those guys might be armed! We could be shot!"

Mikaela nodded in agreement. "He's right. If we're going to do this, we need to do this right."

Simmons frowned and the three looked thoughtful and silently contemplated their plan of action before they eventually looked at Terra at the same time. She frowned at each expectant face for the moment before shrugging. "What are you staring at?" she asked.

Simmons smirked. "What's the usual time it takes you to take out at least four to five armed people?"

Terra sighed, knowing what he meant. "Depending on the conditions and environment; my record time was about four minutes."

"Can you do it in half that time?" Simmons asked.

Terra made a sound of disapproval. "I don't know. I'll try."

"Good!" Simmons said, "We'll be right behind you!"

Terra straightened and approached the museum, stepping inside. It was mostly empty save for a few security guards pacing back and forth. Terra scanned each guard and noticed that they were indeed armed with semi-automatic handguns, tazers and pepper spray. When two of them saw her, they held up their hands in warning. Terra could see that one of them had his hand close to his gun. Fortunately, she could handle that. The guards did possess a significantly high threat level, but they were ill-equipped at actual violence.

"Whoa, we're closing up," one of the guards warned, "You need to leave."

Terra shook her head with a pleasant smile. "My friends, this is important, I'm afraid," she told them, "It will only require a moment of your time."

"I said, you need to leave!" the guard warned.

Terra's smile disappeared. "I'm afraid I'll have to refuse."

Simmons, Leo, Sam and Mikaela watched in amazement from behind the glass doors as Terra fought off each and every security guard who attacked her. One of them attempted to pepper spray her, but she grabbed his arm and forced it back with speed and strength to the point that he sprayed himself in the eyes. He wailed in pain and she quickly flung his body through the air. He landed with a crash against a table with pamphlets lying on it and was still.

Another guard lunged and grabbed Terra from behind. She immediately slid two fingers into his nose, causing him to cry out in pain and she flipped him from her back, delivering a fierce punch to his chest that knocked the wind out of him.

Once it was clear, she gestured for the others to come inside.

"Shit!" Leo gasped, "That was nuts!"

Terra looked at him. "Thank you for that assessment, now let's move."

They made their way through the museum with Simmons wielding a scanner, attempting to pick up traces of radiation. He scanned each and every winged relic until he stopped at an enormous SR-71 Blackbird.

"Got him!" he cried.

The others stared up at the massive reconnaissance craft. Wheelie transformed from his vehicle mode and stared up in awe at the large machine.

"Oh, there he is..." he said, grinning broadly, "This guy's a legend, like the Chairman of the Board!" He gestured to Sam. "Yo, freshman, point the shard and watch the magic happen."

Mikaela looked worriedly to Terra and she smiled sadly and nodded her head, offering Sam the shard. She mouthed the words "it's okay", to Mikaela and Sam missed the looks, but Simmons caught them. He didn't mention it and instead, decided to save it for a better time. Sam held up the Allspark shard to the jet and it suddenly flew into the machine on its own. A jolt of electricity surged through the vehicle and it seemed to jolt to life.

Mikaela briefly spotted a symbol beneath the jet; the Decepticon logo. Her eyes went wide in horror. "Oh, shit... It's a Deception!" she cried.

Simmons' eyes widened as well and he staggered back. "Decepticon?" he gasped. He gestured behind him. "Behind the MiG NOW!"

The humans scattered away as the Blackbird began a painful, rusty transformation in front of them. The Decepticon cleared his throat as he straightened as much as his old body would allow; it sounded like ancient gears whirring together and when his head appeared, he spat out thick globs of brown fluid in the effort of attempting to form speech. Overall, it was a painful, wretched sight to see for the humans below.

"What sort of hideous mausoleum is this?" the Decepticon growled. His red optics landed on the humans at his feet. "You little spinal-cord-based organisms! Answer me! Where am I right now?" He looked around briefly before hissing out his words like a madman. "Answer!"

Terra tilted her head. "And who might you be?" she asked.

The Decepticon scowled. "ME? I AM THE ONE AND ONLY JETFIRE! Glory eternal!" he declared, "Prepare for-" He banged his head on a model of a satellite and winced, shuddering in pain and gripping the affronted spot. "Oh, bugger it!"

Wheelie chuckled dryly. "I tell you, this guy did NOT age well..." he remarked.

Jetfire staggered toward a sealed set of bay doors and angrily banged on them with what appeared to be the robot equivalent of a cane. "I command these doors to open!" he shouted, "Open! Open, I say!" He banged again. "Open Sesame!" Jetfire paused and frowned thoughtfully. "Uh...Open Bay doors?" He gave an angry curse and aimed one of his blasters at the doors. "OPEN! I SAID OPEN!" The blaster sparked and malfunctioned, firing off behind him before taking out a 1940's bomber.

The humans ducked to avoid falling debris and Jetfire looked back sheepishly before growling. "Oh, bollocks! Damn these worthless parts..." he muttered, before he smashed his way through the bay doors and out into the bone yard display. The humans and Wheelie chased after him with Bumblebee and the Twins following behind them.

Simmons glanced back warily at the smashed wall. "The museum is going to be very angry, very angry! We gotta catch that plane!" he cried.

Terra chuckled dryly. "I doubt it. I struck several pressure points in their bodies," she told him breathlessly, "They're going to be out for a while."

"Oh." Simmons breathed, shrugging, "Good to know."

Sam stopped in front of Jetfire. "Hey! Hold up!" he shouted, "Wait a minute!"

Jetfire stopped his trot and turned at the human with a sneer on his metallic mustache face, "What do you want?" he snapped.

"Look, we just want to talk!" Sam told him.

"I've got no time to talk, I'm on a mission! I'm a mercenary doom-bringer!" Jetfire declared. He looked around at his surroundings for a brief moment before he frowned dumbly down at the humans. "What planet am I on anyway?"

"Earth." Sam said.

Jetfire snorted at the name as if he had consumed bad Energon. "Earth?" he sneered, "What a terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it DIRT, Planet Dirt..."

With emphasis on his disgust for the name, he turned his head and spat a glob of what might have been identifiable as saliva. Terra grimaced and arched a single brow at the gesture and watched the fallen pile of spit with just as much disgust as he had.

"My, how charming..." she muttered.

Jetfire was silent before he looked down at the humans. "That reminds me; is that robot civil war still going on? Who's winning?" he asked.

Sam made a face. "The Decepticons."

Jetfire grimaced and spat to the side again. "Well, I changed sides to the Autobots." he said.

Terra frowned at that. "You can change sides at will?" she asked.

"It's a choice. It's an intensely personal decision," Jetfire told her, "So much negativity... Who wants to live a life filled with hate?"

Wheelie seemed absolutely relieved by this new revelation. "You mean you don't have to work for those miserable freaking Decepticons?" he asked, "You actually get a choice to go where you want to go in this hellhole?"

Jetfire nodded. "If the Decepticons had their way, they'd destroy the whole universe!"

Sam frowned thoughtfully, letting that register for a brief moment before he looked up at Jetfire. "Maybe we can help each other," he offered, "You know things I don't know, I know things you don't know..."

Leo whispered sidelong at him. "I don't think he knows what we know."

Sam looked around before he turned back to Terra. "Hey, got a knife on you?" he asked.

Leo stared at Sam in disbelief while Terra patted herself down in a search for the supposed weapon. "Now why in the hell would she be walking around with a-Oh, she actually has one." He cut himself off in mid rant when Terra produced a large carving knife from her boot and offered it to Sam.

Sam bent down in the dirt and began to carve the symbols into the ground. Jetfire watched him silently, curling his metallic lip in a perfect human representation of a grimace. When Sam was finished carving a few, he looked up at the large Decepticon.

"I could do this all day. It comes in waves, these vivid symbols," he told him, "They're symbols, but they're in my mind. You see, all this is in my mind, and Megatron want what's in my mind, him and there's someone called the Fallen..."

Jetfire reacted visibly at the mention of the name. "The Fallen?"

Terra nodded her head. "Yes. Do you know him?"

Jetfire nodded bitterly with a snort of disgust. "I know him. He left me here to rust!" he growled, "He was the original Decepticon! He's terrible to work for, it's always apocalypse, chaos, crisis and..." He trailed off and bent down to study the symbols. "These transcriptions, they were part of my mission! The Fallen's search for them was, ah..." He brightened now. "Yes! Yes, I remember now!...for the Dagger's Tip, a-and the Key!"

Sam held up two hands. "Slow down! The Dagger's Tip? The Key? What are you talking about?"

Jetfire opened his mouth to speak, but then, he looked beyond them and his optics widened. Then, he bent down and scooped the humans and Autobots close. Around him, the air began to heat up and crackle. "No time to explain! Hold on, everybody! Stay still or you'll die!" he shouted.

Then, everyone vanished into a flare of light.

O

There was a cracking sound and then, Jetfire appeared on top of a cliff surface. He smiled with pride and cast his gaze toward his surroundings. It resembled endless desert and appeared to be the correct world as well as the area on the planet that he needed to be.

"Well, that wasn't so bad. I just hope we're still on the right planet." he murmured.

There was another crack and Wheelie appeared through the air, tumbling off of Jetfire's back before he landed in a heap. "Hey, that freaking hurt!" he shouted angrily.

Across the desert, each and every one of them began to reappear with various popping sounds. Terra found herself sprawled on Skid's leg and she quickly scaled down the length of it and peered into the distance, spotting Mikaela, Leo and Sam. She was bent over the boy, tending to what appeared to be a burned arm. Terra rushed up and her eyes went wide in shock at the severity of the damages done from the trip.

Leo looked around. "I think we're in Vegas!" he exclaimed.

Terra bent down to Sam and frowned worriedly. "How did this happen?" she asked.

Sam gestured up to Jetfire with a hiss of pain. "Ask that maniac!"

Jetfire was in the middle of an argument with Simmons at the moment and the three humans and Autobots approached him in the end of it. Jetfire was clearly losing his patience as evidenced by the way that he rubbed his forehead.

"That really, really hurt!" Simmons snapped, "You're just lucky that I didn't get hurt! People could have gotten killed, okay? And if I would have gotten hurt, you would have heard..."

Jetfire scowled down at him. "Oh, shut up! I told you I was opening a space bridge, it's the fastest way to travel to Egypt and-"

Sam looked angry now. "When did you tell us? You didn't tell us anything!" he spat, "You didn't tell us anything. Why are we in Egypt?"

"Don't you get snippy with me, fleshling!" Jetfire warned. "You were duly informed! I have issues of my own, and it started with my mother!" He ignored the bored looks from the humans and continued on his tirade. "My ancestors have been here for centuries! My father, why, he was a wheel! The FIRST wheel! Do you know what he transformed into?"

Simmons arched a brow. "No. What?"

"NOTHING!" Jetfire declared, "But he did so with honor! DIGNITY, dammit!"

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose with his good hand before he frowned impatiently up at Jetfire. "Can you just relax and give us a bit of info here so we can all have ourselves a little peace of mind?" he asked, impatiently.

Jetfire nodded his head and took a deep inhale. "This planet was visited by our race once before, by our earliest ancestors, millennia ago. They were on an exploratory mission to harvest Energon, the lifeblood of our race," he explained, "Without it, we'll all perish, oxidize and rust... like my wretched self!" He gestured to his rusted, outdated parts. "Do you have any idea what it's like to slowly fall part and die?"

Simmons rolled his eyes. "Let's not get episodic, okay, old-timer?" he snapped, "Beginning, middle, end. Facts, details. Condense: Plot. Tell it!"

Jetfire gestured to the broad desert. "Somewhere buried in this desert, our ancestors built a great machine. It harvests Energon by destroying suns."

The humans reacted visibly with shock.

"Destroy suns?" Sam stammered.

Leo made a gesture with two hands. "You mean blow them up?"

"Yes!" Jetfire continued, "You see, in the beginning, there were seven Primes, our original leaders. And they set out into the universe, seeking distant suns to harvest. The Primes set out with one rule: never destroy a planet with life. Until one of them tried to defy this rule. And his name was, forevermore, the Fallen..." He projected a holographic image of the horrible face of the Fallen; the same one seen on the televisions across the world. They witnessed the construction of the mighty machine and the downfall of the primitive humans around it. They also witnessed the uprising of the Fallen himself. "He despised the human race, and he wanted to kill you all by turning on that machine. The only way to activate it is with a legendary key called the Matrix of Leadership. A great battle took place over the possession of the Matrix.

The Fallen was stronger than his brothers, so they had no choice but to steal and hide it from him. In the ultimate sacrifice, they gave their lives to seal the Matrix away in a tomb made of their very own bodies. A tomb we cannot find." He shut the hologram off. "Somewhere, buried in this desert, that deadly machine remains. The Fallen knows where it is, and if he finds the Tomb of the Primes, you world will be no more."

Mikaela looked up at Jetfire. "Okay, so how do we stop him?" she asked.

"Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen." Jetfire told her.

Sam reacted with despair at this. "Oh. I get it..." He paused and looked up at Jetfire again, "So say this energy from the Matrix can be used to reactivate the machine... could that energy somehow be used to reactive someone and bring him back to life?"

Jetfire looked a little confused. "It was never designed for that purpose, but it's an energy like no other."

Sam nodded and he seemed a little bit relieved to hear this. "Okay, good to know," he said, "So, then how do you get us to the Matrix before the Decepticons get to me?"

Jetfire gestured to his own head. "Follow your mind, your map, your symbols! What you carved in the sand, it's your clue," he told him, "Remember what I told you; 'When dawn lights the Dagger's Tip, Three Kings will reveal the doorway'! Find the doorway!" He gestured for them to depart. "You have to go now! That was my mission! It's YOUR mission now! Go before the Decepticons find me and find you!"

They turned to go, but Terra stopped them. "I want to stay with Jetfire," she said.

Mikaela looked startled. "What? Why?" she asked.

"There's a few things we need to talk about," Terra told her, "But we won't be far behind you. I'll join up with you again in due time. But you go on."

"Are you sure?" Sam questioned.

"Yes, I'm sure."

Jetfire gestured. "You don't have time to stay here and talk," he said, "Go!"

The humans departed, leaving Jetfire and Terra alone. She looked up at the aged jet.

"It's time to talk." she told him.

He nodded in agreement. "Yes. It is."


	10. Struggle

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Struggle**

Jetfire proved to be a better listener than she had originally believed.

The two spent most of their time in the desert, walking and talking; always on the move to avoid running into any kind of trouble, be it Decepticon or human. Jetfire took the longest time to ponder everything Terra explained regarding her situation.

"It's selfish, Jetfire," she said, quietly, "I don't fear death, but I don't desire it soon either."

Jetfire frowned down at her before he cast his gaze to the blinding sun that was starting to set. "How long do you have?" he asked.

"A few weeks. Maybe less."

Jetfire was silent for a moment before he chuckled quietly. "And you gave up the shard -the chance to live - to revive me?"

"It was important that we revive you to learn the answers to all of this going on," Terra argued, "Much more important than my own survival. You knew things and where to find what we needed to stop the Fallen."

Jetfire took a deep inhale, hanging his great shoulders with a rusted sound. "Terra, I'm old," he replied, turning so that he looked down at her, "I have done terrible things in my life, seen destruction and caused the deaths of many, innocent and deserving. I don't deserve another megacycle of life."

Terra chuckled softly, but it carried a sense of bitterness with it. "That's something we have in common."

"No. You're still very young," Jetfire argued, "And you're the product of a strange, yet fascinating result of the Allspark! You've been Sam Witwicky's guide for several years now. That boy is chosen for greatness and he needs someone to continue to guide him!"

"Jetfire, without the Allspark, I could-"

Jetfire shook his head. "You won't, trust me."

Terra wasn't so sure what Jetfire meant by that, but she felt death knocking on her door and she had no idea how to stop it from breaking in.

"It's getting dark," Jetfire told her, interrupting her thoughts, "You don't want to be in the desert after dark."

Terra nodded in agreement and followed Jetfire to a jagged incline where she made her way inside a gaping cave mouth. Jetfire couldn't fit inside because of his massive wingspan and great shoulders, but he could sit beside it. The sun slowly set over the horizon, casting the desert into darkness. Jetfire's eyes proved to be the only source of light for several yards. Terra didn't really mind the darkness; her goggles could perform night vision scans easily.

"It's quiet..." Terra pondered.

Jetfire nodded his head gravely. "It's the calm before the storm."

Terra reached into her jacket and removed the music box. She studied it impassively before popping it open. It proved to be a soothing melody for both human and Decepticon. Jetfire made a soft, rattling sound.

"A little music would be nice for a change..." he said, quietly.

O

The following morning, Jetfire and Terra made their way through the skies toward the location of the Matrix. Terra observed the ground below from within Jetfire's cockpit, uncertain of how close they were to the earth. It didn't feel very safe to her.

"Jetfire, you're flying too low," she told him, "Is this safe?"

"Not at all!" the Decepticon said, with a laugh, "But the way I see it, we're already running into danger to begin with!"

Terra managed a small returning laugh at that as well. Then, something streaked passed them at such high speeds, it caused Terra to peer ahead with shock on her face. "That was Starscream!" she shouted, "He's on the move!"

Then, Starscream's Cybertonian command filled the air through Jetfire's communication line; he was obviously hacking into the lines to see what was going on. Jetfire growled in frustration and gunned his thrusters.

"Damn! He's broadcasting to the Decepticon troops!" he growled.

Terra winced slightly, gripping the seats. "He's commanding Rampage."

Jetfire sounded surprised. "You can understand Cybertronian?"

"Hardly. Ironhide was teaching me a little," Terra told him.

Another Cybertronian command filtered through the line again. Terra frowned thoughtfully and licked her lips. "That one was a little harder," she said, "Starscream either told Rampage to spring the trap or to shut his yap."

"We know which one it is, don't we?" Jetfire said. "Hang on! I'm moving in low to drop you off at the site!"

Terra winced against the jarring sensation of riding inside the old jet. "You're insane!" she spat.

"I know!" Jetfire hollered.

As they arrived over the horizon, the sounds of gunfire and chaos seemed to grow louder and louder. Terra's eyes widened in shock behind her goggles as she saw literally hundreds of Decepticon troops digging their way through a small village near the Great Pyramids. The humans of NEST and Autobots were attempting to keep them at bay for the longest time. Her goggles picked up a trace of Sam hiding among rubble, close to being obliterated by a Decepticon Mixing Truck.

"It's Mixmaster!" Jetfire hissed, "That bloody sneaky devil!"

Terra grimaced against her seat. "I suppose this is my stop?" she asked.

"You're right! Ejecting!" Jetfire declared.

Suddenly, his cockpit door opened and Terra was ejected out of the jet. It was all a swirling mass of chaos as Jetfire transformed in midair, grabbed her before she could plummet to her doom and tucked and rolled onto the ground.

"Stick the landing... STICK THE LANDING!" he urged himself.

Terra slid across the sand as he stumbled and crashed. He righted himself and charged the smaller vehicle, cutting Mixmaster cleanly in half. Terra scrambled out of the way to avoid a decapitated Mixmaster as his body fell beside her. She quickly rushed up to Sam and Mikaela and the looked stunned to see her.

"Terra!" they exclaimed at the same time.

She smiled and held up her hand rather sheepishly. "Hello. What did I miss?" she asked.

Sam held up a rolled up sock containing what appeared to be a powder substance. "We're going to revive Optimus with this!" he told her. He gestured over the stone wall toward the fallen body of Optimus ahead. "He's right there. I need to get this to him!"

Terra looked confused. "I...see." she said, "What's in it?"

"The Matrix!" Mikalea shouted over the roar of battle.

Terra still looked hopelessly confused. "I pictured...more."

An explosion nearly rocked them from their hiding spot and rubble rained down. Terra looked up and noticed that Jetfire was lying on his side, groaning in pain. He was clutching his chest and bits of spark fluid gushed from between his fingers.

"Jetfire!" she shouted.

He grimaced in agony and waved her off. "Go! JUST GO!" he ordered.

Terra watched him worriedly for a few moments more before she looked at the others. "What can I do?" she asked.

Sam looked up at the sound of jets roaring overhead. Then, he looked at her. "RUN!" he shouted.

The trio ran as fast as they could through the carpet bombing of the Decepticons by the US jets passing by, dropping bombs. The smell of burning sand choked their throats and stung their eyes. Behind the cloud of fire and smoke, Megatron stepped out, snarling with fury and gushing Energon fron various parts of his body due to extensive damages. Terra looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened in horror.

"DIE!" Megatron shouted, aiming his weapon at Sam.

It was then that things moved too fast for them to react. Terra had moved. Then, the sound of Megatron's cannon erupted and Terra's body went flying through the air.

O

A medical team rushed to Terra's fallen, half burned body while Lennox and the others arrived behind them. Terra's goggles were removed from her lifeless face and her eyes were closed. Mikaela and Sam rushed to her side.

"Terra!" Mikaela cried, "Oh God, don't you die on us!"

At the sound of the shriek, Ironhide rushed up and his optics widened in horror. "Terra!"

Two medical officers bent down and opened up Terra's jacket, exposing her bare, terribly burned skin. One of them opened up a medical kid that contained electrodes and pressed them to Terra's chest. After a brief moment of letting them charge, the switch was hit. Terra's body convulsed in a pure muscle reflex, and when it was over, there was not a hint of life. The officer looked at Lennox weakly and shook his head.

"No pulse." he said.

Ironhide gritted his mouth plates together. "Do it again!" he commanded.

"Again!" Lennox ordered the two men.

There was a beat of silence as they performed the same treatment, but received no results. They stared down into Terra's half-open, motionless eyes. Ironhide bent down as close as he could and glared at the officers like a madman.

"AGAIN!" he shouted.

Once more, they attempted to revive Terra in the same way, but her body failed to move and there was no pulse. Ironhide snarled and stared down at the lifeless woman. His optics shimmered with pain and rage at the horrible situation.

"Primus damn you, woman!" he bellowed frantically, "Don't you die! Don't you dare go away!" He glared at the tearful humans watching. "She's not dead! Don't you see that! Her heart is strong, dammit! She's taken worse than this! NOW ZAP HER AGAIN!"

Several times, Terra was zapped by the electrodes. Then, after a brief moment, something changed. There was a small twitch in her fingers and the monitor suddenly beeped with the sign of a pulse. Everyone reacted in shock, but most particularly Ironhide. Then, there was another twitch in Terra's head and her lips parted in a soft moan. Her eyes fluttered and she looked up weakly at the stunned, yet ecstatic humans.

"What...are you staring at?" she croaked, with a weak smile.

The medical officers looked back at Lennox. "We need to get her out of here," she heard one of them say.

Lennox nodded. "Do it."

Terra watched weakly from her position as the two medical officers proceeded to lift her up from the ground. Behind Sam, the Matrix contained within the small sock began to materialize and take the shape of a tear-shaped dagger.

The last thing she remembered seeing was Ironhide's worried, yet tender look staring down at her.

Truth

The first thing she remembered was waking up inside the emergency room. But she didn't expect to see an endless sea of ocean from the window.

Terra slowly sat up with a small groan, feeling a sharp twinge of pain in her chest. She looked down and noticed that she was bandaged around her arm, chest and neck. Looking around, Terra spotted her goggles lying on a side table and she fitted them to her face before stepping out of bed. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the emergency room and she slowly stepped out into the halls, spotting several United States soldiers on the move.

"Terra!" Alexis' voice halted her and she paused, turning.

"Alexis, what happened?" Terra asked.

Alexis smiled brightly. "We've won!" she said, "The Fallen's dead!"

Terra looked surprised. "What?"

"Yes, we're heading home," Alexis said. She paused and studied her up and down. "But you need to get some rest. You had us worried."

Terra shook her head. "I'm fine. I've been shot, stabbed and bruised worse than this," she told the woman, "Where is Ironhide?"

Alexis looked a little troubled, but nonetheless gestured down the hall. "I last saw him sleeping in the cargo bay below deck," she said, "He specifically asked everyone to keep their distance from him for a while."

Terra chuckled dryly and started forward. "Then he'll have himself a visitor."

She made her way through the ship, holding her bandaged chest with one hand as she made her way into the silence of the cargo hold. She looked around briefly through the ammunitions crates and weapons before spotting the black truck parked a few feet away. She smiled weakly and approached him.

"Ironhide?" she said.

His door opened and his voice came out low. "Get in. We need to talk." he ordered.

Terra arched a brow, but weakly made her way inside his cab with a bit of effort given her wounds. Once she shut the door, his hologram appeared beside her and he leaned forward, pinning her to the door of his real body.

"Don't ever do that to me again," he growled.

Terra raised her brows, non intimidated. "Is that a threat?" she asked, though a light smile touched her lips.

"It could be," Ironhide said, his blue optics intense with restrained pain and anger, "I could have lost you! You would have never been harmed if you hadn't been so stubborn!"

Terra scowled. "It seems that you easily forgot your pious act, Ironhide," she snapped, "I don't appreciate secrets!"

"I would have told you!"

"Really?" Terra said, leaning closer so that their faces almost touched, "When would you have told me? It isn't the fact that you had another. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the deceit. I can take everything else, but deceit is something that I will not be a victim of again."

Ironhide snorted. "As if you have never lied before!"

Terra's anger seemed to drain completely and she chuckled with bitterness. "I have been a liar only once in my life," she told him, her voice dropping low.

Ironhide softened. "What are you talking about?"

Terra sighed before she looked up at him. "My first mission to Moscow Russia," she said, "I never wanted to speak of it again to anyone, but I think that it's time that I had. It haunts me every waking second."

Ironhide's metallic brows moved together in a human expression of a frown. "What happened that day Terra?"


	11. Truth

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Truth**

_A sixteen year old Terra sat at a debriefing with her brothers, listening to Doctor Michaels' list of missions that they were to be assigned to. A few of them were taking notes and Terra was eagerly pondering what she would be doing for the first time._

_"Now then, come forward and you will receive your target information," Doctor Michaels told them._

"I was excited; this was my first mission, my first chance to prove my worth to my superiors. In my youth, that meant a lot to me. It was before that I had any awareness of the true motives behind my makers and their actions."

_Terra was crouched beneath tall grass, observing the village and its inhabitants. _

"With Jimmy Carter giving the USSR trouble, Americans and Russians were not on friendly terms with one another as you probably know," Terra continued, "My target was a man named Lazar Pavlov. My orders were to take his life by whatever means necessary, but to make it appear as an accident. He was dealing in black market trades and supposedly had connections with the statesmen. Somehow he was being paid by the businesses of the small town to keep them safe. Or so I was told. Bottom line, they felt he was a threat. If there were to be any witnesses, I had to do away with them in the same fashion. They had to 'disappear'."

_Terra was dressed in a coat brandishing the colors and marks of the Soviet Union. To many who noticed her, she appeared to be a soldier for their country. A young one, but that was to be expected these days. _

_Terra's goggles observed each and every person around her, seeking out the man she was supposed to kill._

"He was to arrive at the village to deal in weapons, but never arrived at his target location. I reported back to my superiors of the situation and they informed me that I was to remain until the target had been neutralized. So I had spent the evening in a hotel. That was when it had happened. I met a young girl, my age. Her name was Yana."

_Terra purchased a drink at the bar and stepped outside, only to meet up with a smiling, cheerful girl wearing a thick fur coat and hat._

_"Zdravstvuĭte. Vy smotrite poteryali, chuzhoĭ (Hello. You look lost, stranger)!" the girl greeted._

_Terra cleared her throat with a small laugh. "YA novichok v etoĭ derevne. YA rodom iz Samary (I'm new to this village. I'm originally from Samara)."_

_Yana frowned and then smiled and gestured to her own neck. "Gektometr Ponimayu. Vash aktsentnemnogo ... zaputany (Hm. I see. Your accent is a bit...muddled)." _

_Terra was concerned that this girl would pick her out and her mission would be compromised, but instead, Yana laughed gently and shook her head. "Ne volnuĭtes. YA nekrysa. Chto by vy ni zdes yest svoĭ sobstvennyĭ biznes (Don't worry. I'm not a rat. Whatever you're here for is your own business)."_

_Terra smiled with relief and gave the girl a slight bow. "Spasibo (Thank you)."_

_"Kak tebya zovut (What's your name)?" Yana asked. _

_Terra remembered the false identity papers she had to use should she be required to display them to anyone. "Anastasia Kulik." _

_"Menya zovut Yana (My name's Yana)."_

_Terra smiled. "Priyatno s vami poznakomit'sya (It's a pleasure to meet you)."_

_"Ty vyglyadish' kak chelovek, kotoromu nechego delat' (You look like someone with nothing to do)," Yana said, smiling, "Khoteli by vy priekhat' v magazine moego ottsa (Would you like to come to my father's shop)?"_

_Terra tilted her head. "Chto on prodaet (What does he sell)?"_

_"Muzykal'nye shkatulki (Music boxes)," Yana answered._

_Terra smiled faintly. "YA lyublyu muzyku (I like music)," she said._

_Terra followed the girl with interest at heart, wondering if maybe this was the man who she had been sent to find. It would have been a pity if she was forced to end the life of this girl as well, but that was her mission and she would carry it out._

_As they trudged through the evening snow, Terra looked up at three men standing together beside a bar, talking excitedly. As they passed the men, one of them expressed interest in Yana and whistled loudly for her to hear. Yana pretended to ignore them and just smiled up at Terra._

_"Staraĭtes' ignorirovat' eti muzhchiny (Try to ignore those men)," she told her, "Oni vsegda zdes' (They are always here)." _

_"Suka (Bitch)!" one of the men sneered as they stepped into the music shop._

_An aged man was standing behind a counter, surrounded by music boxes of every shape, size and color. He looked up at the sight of Yana enter and sighed impatiently. His hands were covered in bits of grease and oil and he was holding a pair of tweezers._

_"Ty opozdal (You're late)!" he snapped._

_"Izvinite papa (Sorry papa)," Yana said, wincing, "YA dolzhen vymyt', i ya budu vniz (I have to wash up and I'll be down)."_

_Yana disappeared through a door at the left and Terra studied the man before giving him a bow. "Dobryĭ vecher (Good evening)."_

_The man smiled sourly and returned his gaze to the music box in his hands. "Kak tebya zovut (What's your name)?" he asked._

_"Anastasia Kulik," Terra answered._

_The man chuckled softly and looked up at Terra from the tops of his eyes. There was no menace there, but instead, amusement. "I kak dolgo tebya zovut Anastasiya Kulik (And how long is your name Anastasia Kulik)?"_

_Terra smiled back, though she seemed concerned by the man's ability to point out the lie that she had made. "Vy umny (You are smart)."_

_The man nodded his head. "YA rabotal navoennoĭ sebya. YA znayu,ubiĭtsa , kogda ya vizhu odin (I worked for the military myself. I know an assassin when I see one)." He turned to reach for a set of springs inside of a box. "Pozvol'te mne ugadat' , pervoĭ missii (Let me guess; first mission)?"_

_"Slishkom khorosho dlya prostogo dogadyvat'sya (Too good for a simple guess)," Terra said, advancing slowly, "Kto vy (Who are you)?"_

_He held up two hands with a small smile on his face. "Rasslab'tes'. YA vam ne vrag. Menya zovut Pavel. YA rabotayuspetsialistom informatsiyu s obyeikh storon (Relax. I am not your enemy. My name is Pavel. I work as an information specialist on both sides)."_

"But I should have understood better," Terra continued, looking at Ironhide. She had remoded her goggles by now. "I felt myself getting too involved in these people. They knew nothing of why I was there and who I was. All they knew was that I had a mission to complete."

Ironhide had been listening intently. "So what happened?"

Terra sighed and looked away. "I was appreciated by Yana as a friend would," she continued, "I was baffled by the way that humans treated one another here in this family. For my life, I was bred to kill and never learn of them. Only kill. But with this...friend, I felt myself feeling...joy."

_Yana smiled and offered Terra a music box. Terra looked surprised. "Chto eto (What is this)?" Terra asked her._

_Yana chuckled. "Da, glupo. Nadpis' glasit: "mili peshkom s drugom tol'ko sto shagov " (Yes, silly. The inscription reads, "A mile walk with a friend has only one hundred steps")." she explained, "Moĭ otets sdelal eto za vas (My father made it for you)."_

_Terra looked astounded. "Pochemu (Why)?"_

_"Vy pokhozhi na cheloveka, kotoryĭ mog by ispol'zovat'drug (You look like someone who could use a friend)." Yana said, with a small smile._

_Terra's brow knotted and she studied the object for a long time. Her features seemed to be one of intense struggle before scowling. "YA ne mogu prinyat' takoĭ podarok (I cannot accept such a gift)," she said, quietly._

_"Pochemu by i net (Why not)?" Yana asked._

_"Potomu chto vasha dobrota menya smushchaet (Because your kindness confuses me)," Terra argued, frustration in her voice._

_Yana looked confused now by her distant behavior. "V samom dele (Really)?" she questioned. Then, she chuckled and shook her head knowingly. "Vy ne mogli by vstretil mnogo khoroshikh lyudyeĭ togda (You couldn't have met many nice people then)."_

_Terra looked surprised by the response before she managed a small, sad smile. "Net, ya etogo ne sdelali (No, I haven't)."_

"It changed then. I was foolish and did not see the inevitable. Lazar Pavlov arrived at the village while I was by the stream with Yana. He was arriving to receive his payments and Pavel was a bit short. Lazar gunned him down. Yana and I rushed to save him, but it didn't matter. Yana saw what they had done to her father and that drove her insane. I moved to take the gunmen out, which proved to be simple, but it didn't matter. Yana had been shot."

_Terra cradled Yana's bloodied body close, attempting to stop the blood flow. "Yana! Yana! Posmotri na menya! Pomoshch' pridet (Yana! Yana! Look at me! Help will come)!"_

_Yana's wide, delirious eyes focused on the world around her. "YA...ya ne vizhu. Eto tak temno ... (I...I can't see. It's so dark)..." she gasped._

"If I had not been foolish... If I had not let myself succumb to such weak emotion, Yana would have lived that day..."

_Terra carried Yana's body through the snow-driven field toward the military helicopter. The presence of the bleeding Russian girl did nothing to stir an emotional response from the soldiers watching, but Terra's stricken features certainly surprised them. _

_"Save her!" Terra shrieked at them, "She's dying! You must save her!"_

_Number Six was watching coldly through his empty mask. "Is it done?" he asked._

_"It's done. But save her now!" Terra begged. _

_Doctor Michaels moved to Terra's side and gestured for a medical team to move quickly. He looked up at Terra and spoke with little to no sympathy. He was obviously not thrilled with Terra's response or her lack of completing the task assigned to her._

_"I'll save this girl, but you won't be so lucky," he snapped, "This was supposed to be a simple mission and you screwed it up!"_

_Terra snarled at him. "The girl is dying and you're so worried about a dead man?" she spat._

_"We'll discuss this later..." Doctor Michaels hissed, with venom in his voice._

Terra closed her eyes with a sigh to steady her breath. "I should not have been surprised what happened next..."

_Terra was sitting in her room, goggles removed. She sat in the corner in the shadows, her head hanging. Doctor Michaels stepped up to the glass and sighed._

_"Number Seven, that girl is dead," he said, quietly, "I did everything in my power to save her. I'm sorry."_

_He waited for a reaction, but received none and turned to go. Clearly he wasn't as sorry as he claimed to be. Then, Terra's voice filled the air. It was soft, cold and enough to chill his blood and straighten the hairs on his head._

_"Do you have a family, sir?" she whispered, barely audible._

_Doctor Michaels looked back at her. "Both my wife and child are dead, I'm afraid," he said, calmly; he was used to this type of talk from her by now, but something about it was different this time, "It's not good to dwell on it."_

_Terra peered up at him from her bangs. Her violet eyes seemed to shine in the dark. "I won't kill you, doctor," she whispered, her voice empty of emotion and yet broken, "One day, I'll have you experience the same thing that I did. I will destroy and erase everything that you have ever known or loved. I will have you forever known the meaning of pain and more. That is a promise, doctor Michaels. Believe me when I say that."_

"It was fleeting, but it was a friendship that I had lost. I failed Yana and her father. I should have been more attentive to my mission, but I was not. I then decided to devote only my life to my mission and nothing else. I would never again fall prey to emotions."

"And that is why you go out of your way to protect Sam, isn't it..."

It wasn't a question so much as it was an affirmation. Terra didn't respond to that.

_Terra sat in the gym, listening to the cold voices of the two scientists. She knew what doctor Michaels was doing; he wanted her to feel nothing and hold no connection to the human world. That was fine with her. _

_"Come on, Number Seven, show us what you're made of!" one of the men sneered._

_"Nah, she can't do anything!" the other hissed, "She doesn't laugh. She doesn't cry. She's just creepy as hell!"_

"I knew then that I could never be accepted by humans," Terra continued.

_Terra sighed and closed her eyes. She glared ahead as a nurse took her blood. "Everyone in this place is unhappy..." she said, coldly, "Since they're unhappy. They're probably looking for someone worse off than they are."_

Ironhide held Terra in his arms and brushed a finger beneath her chin. "Terra..."

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Terra shifted at the words before she smiled sadly up at him. "Don't lie to me."

Ironhide looked stunned. "You don't believe me?"

"I don't think you believe yourself."

"What do you mean?"

Terra sighed and gave him a knowing look. "I believe that you THINK you may love me," she told him, "But in reality, you may feel a mere connection with me for other reasons that go beyond your own thought process. You subconsciously connect to me because I am different from other human beings and have a precise frequency that pleases your own. Had I been a simple, common human like Mikaela, would you have felt the same?"

Ironhide wavered slightly; it looked so unusual on him. Finally, he sighed and shut his optics, clearly hurt.

"Do not misunderstand, Ironhide," Terra argued, gently, "I care for you, truly I do. But in a world like this, a relationship with me would never be possible. I am human and you are Cybertronian. It would be folly on your part."

Ironhide scowled at her. "I can handle myself, Terra," he snapped, "I don't care what they think! Why would you push me away after all that has happened?"

"Stop assuming!" Terra spat. Her anger cooled and she closed her eyes before looking at him gently now, her eyes filled with pain. "Because my heart could not bear another loss. I almost lost Sam and Mikaela. If I lost you..."

Ironhide immediately calmed and brought her close in his arms. "Terra, I'm going nowhere." he said, smiling. He pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'm here to stay."

Terra actually smiled now.

"Want to go topside and watch the stars?" Ironhide asked her. "I hear they are quite bright tonight."

She laughed a little. "A star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in its core releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space," she told him, "Also characteristics of a star are determined by its evolutionary history, including diameter, rotation, movement and temperature. A plot of the temperature of many stars against their luminosities, known as a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (H–R diagram), allows the age and evolutionary state of a star to be determined and-"

Ironhide smiled and pressed a finger to her lips. "A simple 'yes' would have sufficed." he teased.

The two later stepped up to the surface to observe the night sky. It was clear and filled with millions of stars. Terra smiled as she observed them.

"One can truly appreciate the beauty of the stars," she said, "They shine brightest in the dark sky."

"Indeed," Ironhide told her.

They were silent for a long time.

"Terra?" Ironhide finally said.

"Yes?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Terra smiled slightly. "That makes me happy, Ironhide."

"And I do love you."

Terra was quiet, unable to answer for a moment. When she did, she sounded uncertain. "Truthfully, Ironhide; I would not know how to express such a feeling."

Ironhide grinned broadly. "Then maybe it's time I showed you?"

Terra's eyes widened slightly. Then, she lowered her head, clearly uncomfortable, but more because she had no experience in the area of expressing love. "I don't know how to tell you this, Ironhide, but I've never..."

"Then let me show you."

The concept of nervousness was foreign to Terra as she didn't often experience it, but now, her eyes reflected nothing but the emotion as she followed him back below the deck.


	12. Epilogue

**Imperfection**

**Disclaimer:** A sequel I had planned for Imperfect. A day late and a dollar short, but you know. LOL. Many other ideas came out of nowhere, so I had them to deal with. Anyway, this is an AU story that focuses around RoTF. Read and review.

_"Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness."_

-Michel de Montaigne

_"It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."_

-Seneca

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

_"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"_

-Megatron, RoTF

**Epilogue**

Days went by and Sam was returning to college.

Terra walked him up to the building and he just laughed, somewhat embarrassed by her actions and looking around at others who stared at the scene. "Terra, you don't have to do this, really." he said, "I'm going to be fine. It's been quiet since then. I'll be okay."

"Sam, I told you I'm here to keep you safe," Terra said, smiling.

Sam paused and looked over his shoulder. "Mikaela couldn't come then?"

"She wanted to, but she had work," Terra explained, looking somewhat sympathetic now, "You have college, Sam. Don't be concerned. I'll keep watch over her."

Ironhide was parked in the lot and Sam chuckled softly, glancing briefly in his direction. "I take it you two made up?" he asked.

Terra actually smirked. "Yes. We may have."

Sam raised a brow at the thought and looked momentarily interested. "How does that even-" He held up two hands and shook his head now. "Nope. Nope. I don't want to know." He turned to go. "I have to go. I'll see you in a while."

"Stay safe, Sam," Terra told him.

"I will."

Terra watched him go and then, turned and walked back up to Ironhide. "Let's go," she said.

Ironhide opened his door and she climbed inside. They pulled away onto the street. Their ride was quiet before Ironhide spoke. "Is there anything you'd like to do today, Terra?" he asked her, a smile in his voice.

Terra chuckled softly. "I think there is something you'd like to do."

"You've caught me."

Ironhide pulled into a deserted street before stopping. His holoform appeared at her side and his blue optics smoldered with fire. Terra removed her goggles and gave him an equally powerful stare.

"Come on then," he growled.

And with that, he descended upon her like a hungry storm.

THE END


End file.
